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Aussie Laser gun fires first up bullet at World Championships Aarhus

by David Sygall 3 Aug 2018 18:47 PDT 30 July - 12 August 2018
Luke Elliott on day 2 of Hempel Sailing World Championships Aarhus 2018 © Beau Outteridge

Australia's tight-knit Laser squad has made a solid start to its campaign with Tom Burton securing a Race 1 win on a day of building breeze at the 2018 World Championships in Denmark.

The Lasers – 165 boats split into three fleets – had two races and the Australians each ended the day in good shape.

"Obviously it's a good feeling. I don't think I've done that before at a World Championships," Rio gold medallist Burton said of his bullet in Race 1.

"Normally my first race sometimes ends up being my drop. So this is a better start than normal.

"We're in three groups, so obviously the quality is divided by three, based off the world rankings. There are still some good guys in the fleet, but it'll be nothing compared to gold fleet. And that will be where you start to rack up some serious points."

Burton is 4th overall, Matt Wearn 7th, Finn Alexander 12th and Luke Elliott 13th with a win in Race 2, while Mitch Kennedy is in 22nd.

"My day was really good," Kennedy said.

"I came away with some solid top 10 results. And I think the other boys were pretty similar. As a whole we had a really good day.

"It was pretty champagne sailing out there, really. The breeze gently built throughout and we got up to about 12 or 14 knots in the end before it died off, so it was really good, some nice sailing."

Nia Jerwood and Monique de Vries were pleased with their second day effort in the 470W, steering away from the pack and making improvements.

"We had a little bit more of a solid day today," Jerwood said.

"They decided not to split our fleet, so we're sailing in 47 boats, which is quite tricky. It's really important to get out of the congestion.... I think today we were being a little bit more gutsy to get away from the fleet and sail our own race a little bit. That helped."

De Vries said the pair had adjusted their starts.

"We actually got off the line a lot better today than yesterday, so we managed to get clear off the line and get out in front a bit earlier," she said.

"So we weren't trying to fight through the fleet, we were just hanging out the front a little bit more. We ended up with a few top 20 results and that's going to put us in good stead for the rest of the event, I think."

The going was not quite as fruitful for their male colleagues, Mat Belcher and Will Ryan, who after three Day 2 races, are placed 10th. The defending champions scored a discarded 13 in the first hit-out, before scoring 8 and 4. Teammates Chris Charlwood and Josh Dawson are 35th.

Jake Lilley made a move up the leaderboard after the three Day 2 Finn races, recovering from a dropped 23 to nab a 6 and 2 and rise to 23rd, though colleagues Oli Tweddell and Tom Slingsby each lost ground.

Racing started also in the Laser Radial with Zoe Thomson claiming the best Australian result among the day's two races, 15th, and placing 41st overall.

The Finn, Laser Standard, Laser Radial and 470s will be joined tomorrow on the waters off Aarhus by the 49er men's and women's skiffs.

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