Shifty conditions for Day 3 of the Laser Radial World Youth and Men

by Linda Parrish on 7 Aug 2009
Summer arrived in Karatsu today with shifty conditions for Day 3 of the Laser Radial World Youth and Men Championship. It was a beautiful day on the water with sunshine and light breezes although there was some rain ashore in the hills.

The first race for each of the four fleets was sailed in five to eight knots and the second in ten to twelve knots, with all eight scheduled races sailed. Today was an opportunity for those liking lighter conditions to show their skills and there was significant movement in position throughout the fleets in the overall results.

There are 28 boys and 10 girls looking to win the under 17 year award. Australian girls, Ashley Stoddart in first place and Alexandra South in second are convincing leaders at this stage. In the boys Philip Doran from Ireland is leading from Nevin Snow of USA and Oliver Loughead from Ireland in third.

The lead has changed in the Youth Women with Mathilde de Kerangat from France having her third win today to take first place overall with 8 points. Ashley Stoddart, from Australia is three points back in second place from Michelle Broekhuizen from Netherlands in third on 18 points.

In the men’s fleet, race 5 results reflected the light conditions with the top two sailors down in the results. Giacomo Sabbatini from Italy won the race with Cheol Seo Dong from Korea in second. However Marcin Rudawski from Poland continues to dominate this fleet with a win in race 6 to continue as overall leader. Ben Koppelaar from Netherlands had an OCS in race 6 but continues to hold second place 14 points behind Marcin. Romzi Muhamad Mohd from Malaysia has moved into third place with the two big movers of the day Insub Kim from Korea in fourth place and Giacomo Sabbatini from Italy in fifth.

Poland is also dominant in the Youth Men with Aleksander Arian in first overall with a 17 point lead. There is a close battle for the next three positions with Matej Valic from Slovania second on 23 points, Alexios Katsios from Greece on 24 points , ahead on count back from Chris Barnard from USA also on 24 points. The light winds certainly brought some changes in positons today with Christopher Jones from Australia moving up to sixth place from twelfth and Keerati Bualong from Thailand into seventh from 23rd.

There is one more day of racing before the youth men's fleet is split into Gold and Silver for the last two days.