ISAF Sailing World Cup in Kiel, Germany

Belcher and Page continued their perfect start to the regatta with their fourth win from four starts to head into Wednesday’s medal race with a four point lead over Fantela and Marenic of Croatia with the Swedish crew of Anton and Ostling six points further back in third.

 

“It was nice to finally get a race in after two days of sitting around,” said Page. “Once again it was very light but a fair and even race with shifts of only 10 to 15 degrees which were slow and gradual.”

 

“The race was a good one for us and we’re happy with how we’re sailing,” he said. “We’ve had mixed conditions throughout the regatta and it’s nice to know that we’re going well in all conditions.”

 

“So tomorrow we head into the medal race and we’ll just go and race the best we can. The points are a little too hard to control in any way so we’ll just head out there and see what happens.”

 

The Laser fleet also completed one race with Tom Slingsby finishing in third position and continues to lead the regatta. After a great opening day where he won all three races Slingsby’s third position on Tuesday ensured that he held onto the lead heading into the final medal race.

 

Slingsby has a four point lead over Canadian Michael Leigh with German sailor Philipp Buhl three points adrift in third.

 

The Australian Women’s Match Racing Team crew of Katie Spithill, Jessica Eastwell and Angela Farrell are locked in a tight battle for a semi-final position with American Anna Tunnicliffe.

 

In a long day on the water for the Australian crew they started the day with the final two Gold Round Robin races, recording a victory against Great Britain’s MacGregor and a loss to Lehtinen of Finland to finish the round third overall and set up a best of five quarter-final match up with Tunnicliffe.

 

“After a positive finish to the Gold Round Robin we’re now in the middle of our quarter-final match up with the Americans,” said Spithill. “After the opening three races we’re trailing two to one with the final two races to be held tomorrow morning.”

 

“We’ve now got nothing to lose, we’re going to go out there tomorrow knowing exactly what we have to do and put everything into it,” she said. “The conditions were painful again, very shifty and very light but the race committee did a good job of getting the races in and know when to call them off when necessary.”

 

“We worked well as a team today, it was hard work out there today for Jess and Angela as they had to try and find a patch of find and not a patch of glass and they did a great job,” said Spithill.

 

Fellow Australian’s Nicky Souter, Nina Curtis and Olivia Price had a good day’s racing, winning their final two Repechage Round Robin races to leave them tied for second position in the group with Germany’s Silke Hahlbrock. Unfortunately the Aussie trio was knocked out on a count back as they had lost to Hahlbrock the day before and finished the regatta in ninth position.

 

In the RS:X women’s class Jessica Crisp heads into the final medal race in sixth position following a fourth and a seventh in Tuesday’s two races. Crisp is just nine points off the Bronze medal position and 12 points off the lead and with the medal race worth double points is still well and truly in contention for a medal.

 

The Laser Radial fleet was able to complete one race on Tuesday with Krystal Weir finishing in 11^th position which sees her finish the qualifying round ninth overall, booking a spot in the medal race. Fellow Australian Megan de Lange just missed out on a medal race berth in 13^th position overall, a strong result in her first major international regatta for the year.

 

The Australian Sailing Development Squad crew of Sam Kivell and Will Ryan are 15^th in the 470 men’s fleet with their best race of the regatta coming on Tuesday with a third place finish. Max Taylor and Ben Gunther are in 32^nd position while Alexander and Patrick Conway are 69^th.

 

Laser sailor Ryan Palk’s great European summer has continued and will take part in his first major medal race after finishing the qualifying series in 10^th position. Ashley Brunning sits in 26^th position and James Burman is 34^th.

 

In the 49er class Steven Thomas and Nick Brownie finished the qualifying series in 37^th position in their first major international regatta together.

 

West Australian Tim Castles is in 41^st position in the Finn class after five races.

 

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