| HYANNIS, USA-(18-9-2002) For once the weather forecast was right when a light offshore gradient wind under a cloudy sky died when the sun came came out on the sixth day of the Laser World Championship. The 7 to 8 knot wind was switching through 30 degrees causing a delay in the start of the first race of the day until it finally settled sufficiently to set a course.
The fleet split in half on the start line and up the first windward leg. The forecast called for the wind to veer to the right but in fact it stayed relatively stable. The leaders at the first mark came from the left hand side of the course and included the overall leader Robert Scheidt from Brazil and 3rd placed Karl Suneson. Out in front was the British sailor Daniel Holman who had built up a 200 metre lead at the end of the down wind leg. Scheidt had moved up from 6th with Suneson challenging for the lead having worked his way through from 4th.
As the fleet started their second windward leg Holman got his first couple of tacks wrong and lost a considerable part of his leg in a matter of 200 metres. As the fleet progressed up the leg the wind was dying and the potential for further place changes increased.
The Race Committee decided to shorten the course to 4 legs by finishing the race at the end of the second windward leg. Scheidt said “200 metres before the windward mark I thought I could get to second but I chose to protect my fourth place.” Holman held on to win ahead of Suneson and fellow Swede, Daniel Birgmark.
Suneson was happy with his result and hoping for 2 more races on the final day. He commented “I still have a chance of catching Robert I have been runner up before and it would be great if I could go one better!”
A second discard now comes into force as ten races have been completed although only one of these can be taken from the final series of races from race 8 onwards.
Although Suneson and Scheidt are discarding a final series result they are single figure positions so they can still afford one more bad result. Their nearest rivals, Brendan Casey from Australia and Paul Goodison from Great Britain, are in a far worse position as they have each discarded a final series result in worse than 25 and will very likely drop out of the top five if they have a bad last day.
Full results, reports and photos: www.laserworlds2002.com/senior/
Scores take into account 2 discards
Seq Name Scores 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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1 BRA Robert Scheidt 17.0 15 1 2 5 1 1 1 6 2 4
2 SWE Karl Suneson 25.0 8 2 10 1 1 1 9 1 9 2
3 AUS Brendan Casey 27.0 3 4 1 2 5 5 23 3 4 30
4 GBR Paul Goodison 35.0 8 3 19 4 3 4 2 24 6 5
5 FIN Fredrik Westman 39.0 12 2 2 41 7 2 1 2 11 43
6 GBR Edward Wright 40.0 2 1 1 18 3 9 10 4 10 27
7 RSA Gareth Blanckenberg 44.0 1 5 4 5 2 8 7 13 24 7
8 FIN Roope Suomalainen 57.0 39 6 9 3 4 3 3 43 21 8
9 ITA Diego Negri 58.0 19 5 7 16 12 3 3 8 7 13
10 SWE Daniel Birgmark 62.0 23 13 6 10 7 4 14 5 14 3
11 GBR Mark Howard 67.0 12 3 8 34 4 2 14 19 5 42
12 BEL Philippe Bergmans 77.0 14 10 8 15 19 5 11 7 13 9
13 SLO Vasilij Zbogar 78.0 5 8 10 4 5 10 5 18 23 47
14 ESP Luis Martinez 81.0 9 6 ocs 14 18 14 2 15 3 58
15 CRO Mate Arapov 86.0 17 12 3 13 10 bfd 4 10 17 26
16 NED Pieter-Jan Postma 90.0 45 4 18 8 9 13 12 58 12 14
17 SWE Peter Santen 95.0 6 8 5 7 8 18 10 31 55 20
18 AUT Andreas Geritzer 97.0 11 13 13 23 2 6 11 11 30 35
19 SWE Rasmus Myrgren 98.0 7 16 17 24 9 11 5 14 19 55
20 CAN Bernard Luttmer 110.0 24 11 13 20 15 7 4 25 15 59
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