Laser Radial Worlds conclude, with NZ in mid-thirties

by Sail-World on 21 May 2012
A busy month at six Olympic class world championships for New Zealand crews came to a close as Sara Winther placed 34th in the Laser Radial.

Winther had mixed results in what was a predominantly windy and shifty weather regatta where consistency was key. Over the 12 races, she had several races inside the top ten including two second and a third, but was unable to recover from two black flag penalties on the first day of final series which dropped her from 13th overall back into the 30’s.

The fleet was shuffled overnight in the last two races where light winds and close racing brought ten yellow flag penalties for boats that were breaking propulsion rules to gain advantage, including several lead boats. The Laser Radial World Championship was won by for the first time by Lithuanian Gintare Sheidt who took the title away from 2008 Bronze Medallist Lijia Xu of China.

NZL's Sara Winther finished inside the top 25% of this regatta with over 130 boats racing, and will now look forward to a short break before heading to England for the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta at the Olympic sailing venue of Weymouth.

Laser Radial World Championship Final Standings
133 boats, 12 races
34th - Sara Winther

Full results and more information can be seen on the Laser Radial World Championship http://www.laserworldchampionship.com/fileadmin/medialib/dokumente/Regatta/Laser_WM_2012/final_results_gold.pdf!official_website.