Slingsby leads going into medal race at Kiel Week
Today was the last day of fleet races in the eight Olympic Classes present in Kiel. Overcast, partly showers with SW to W breeze between 14 to 25 knots on the Kiel Fjord attracted thousands of spectators and visitors to watch the Tall Ship Parade and at the same time the action of the Olympic Classes on the 8 race courses of Kieler Woche 2008.
'49er start at Kiel Week - www.segel-bilder.de'
The 'king' of the Star fleetis undoubtedly R. Scheidt/B. Prada, BRA (overall 10) after finishing as first in both races today. Fredrik L??f/A. Ekstrom, SWE consistently placed second, and A. Hagen/F. Kleen, GER remain in third overall position despite an 'OCS' infringement in the first race.
Unbeatable in the Finn Classseems to be R. Trujillo, ESP who won today's eighth race but shares even points with E. Wright, GBR as overall second and J. H?gh-Christensen, DEN as third. With the top ten participants after eight races the medal race will include nine nations!
The49er fleetfinished overall 15 races, and still wearing the yellow jersey is I. Martinez/X. Fernandez, ESP, followed by brothers Hansen, DEN as second overall and J. Warrer/M. Kirketerp, DEN as third . They will represent Denmark in Quingdao due to earlier qualifications.
Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin are 15th.
Romy Kinzl, GER continues to fight for her Qingdao 'ticket' up to the last race, she leads theRS:X Wfleet with super 11 points overall after nine races. Romy defended her lead mainly against the Polish ?quipe, the best of whom finished as second A. Galecka and third M. Hcavaty overall after nine races. First in the RS:X Mfleet remains P. Miarczynski who won today's ninth race. The top three surfers represent Poland and the Netherlands, second place covers C. Bouman, NED, third is P. Myszka, POL with D. van Rijsselberge, NED moving down to fourth place today.
Lijia Xu, CHN, dominates the Laser Radial W fleet and considers Kieler Woche as rehearsal for the Olympic Regatta in her home country. After ten races she shares her lead with S. de Turckheim, FRA (both 36 overall) and as third S. Multala, FIN. All three will fight for a Kieler Woche Medal tomorrow.
Tom Slingsby, AUS leads the Laser fleet after ten races, leaving G. Lima, POR as 2nd and M. Leigh, CAN as third overall. Ten different nations (AUS, POR, CAN, SWE, EST, GRE, NED, POL, GER, NZL) will participate in tomorrow's medal race parallel on two race courses close to the Schilksee Olympic harbour.
Ashley Brunning 25th, James Burman 52nd, Ryan Hannan 56th
T. Etter/F. Steiger, SUI enlarged their lead in the 470 M fleet(32) after ten races, second overall are the Swedes S. Ostling/A. Dahlberg (43) and third R. Tay/P. Chung, SIN (51). His countrymen Y.Zhen Xu/T. Koh dropped back from third to seventh today.
470 W 'Queen' is the Japanese team A. Kondo/N. Kamata, and they will start tomorrow's medal race (double points/no discard) almost being unbeatable for the Gold Medal in their class. Second overall are the Danes H. Koch/L. Sommer (36) and third the Australians Stacey Omay and Chelsea Hall (53).
noosaville, QLD
