Kiel Week - On shore at German Sailing World Cup round

by Craig Heydon on 20 Jun 2012 A lack of breeze has brought the penultimate day of racing at the ISAF Sailing World Cup round in Germany to an early end.

Only a handful of races were completed early on Tuesday with Australian sailors remaining on shore for the day. The cancelation of racing means that the fleets will head straight into the medal races on Wednesday with Australian sailors to compete in three classes.

Brendan Casey heads into the Finn class medal race second overall, just three points behind leader Deniss Karpak of Estonia after seven races. Casey closed the gap to Karpak with wins in both races on Monday and if he can finish ahead of the Estonian in the final 10 boat medal race, with a boat between them, he should claim the gold medal.

The Gold Coast based sailor, who will compete at his first Olympic Games in a few weeks time, is 11 points ahead of third placed American Caleb Paine heading into the final race. Ryan Palk will start the Laser medal race fifth overall after seven consistent races in Kiel. The Queenslander has finished in the top eight in every race this week and is currently 11 points off the podium.

Ashley Stoddart will contest the Laser Radial medal race with the teenager currently sixth overall. Stoddart will be chasing down the bronze medal on Wednesday with gold and silver just out of reach. In the Laser class Australian Jake Lilley missed out on a spot in the medal race by the smallest of margins, just 0.3 points, finishing 11th overall.

Mitchell Kennedy was 20th, with Ki-Raphael Sulkowski 66th. In the 470 men’s class Angus Galloway and Tim Hannah were 12th overall in their first ISAF Sailing World Cup round together.

Full results here
Australian Sailing Team website