Weymouth and Portland International Regatta day 2 - Aussies on form

by Craig Heydon on 4 Aug 2011 Weymouth and Portland International Regatta has witnessed the Australian trio of Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty put a tough opening day behind them and start day two in style with a win over Tamara Echegoyen of Spain.

Price and crew lost their next two races against teams from Russia and Great Britain before bouncing back in the final race of the day, beating Rita Goncalves of Portugal.

Even in the two losses the Australians were well in the mix, being beaten by the Russians by just six seconds and the British by nine. 'Today was a better day than yesterday,' said Price. 'We had variable conditions in the morning resulting in us finishing three races where we won one and lost two, then we had another race this afternoon in about 15 knots and we won against the Portugese so it was a better day.

'It was really good to take the new boats for a spin in some heavier air,' she said. 'After today we should be about mid fleet and with four more races tomorrow to finish off the round robin they’re all pretty important, we’ve just got to go out and show them what we’ve got.

'There’s a lot to play for tomorrow and still heaps that could go wrong for the other teams so we’re just going to take it as a brand new day,' said Price.

After the opening seven races the Australians find themselves in a three way tie for eighth position with two wins and five losses.

With the final four round robin races scheduled for Thursday Price, Curtis and Whitty will be pushing hard to book themselves a place in the quarter-finals.

The RS:X classes are set to hit the water for the first time on Thursday with two races scheduled. Three-time Olympian Jessica Crisp will represent Australia in the women’s class while Tim Gourlay will line up in the men’s Australian Sailing Team website