Star Eastern Europeans - after four races

7:23 PM Thu 21 May 2009 GMT

'Stars at play'

As Hyeres, France heads toward its tourist season, the days are longer, the water is warmer and the winds are lighter than they were just three weeks ago during the ISAF World Cup regatta. While common wisdom in Hyeres is that the wind goes right during the day, it has done everything but go right during the first two days of racing during the Star Eastern European Championship.

Today's conditions resembled those of Qingdao's Olympic test events - hazy skies, barely a breath of air and a little chop. Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada's consistency at the top of the fleet has them in the lead and Flavio Marazzi and Enrico de Maria are performing well in their Wilke Star.

Switzerland's Flavio Marazzi and Enrico DeMaria gave each other a congratulatory hand shake and broke into smiles after four legs of intense concentration during the first race.

They crossed the finish line over two minutes in front of Australia's Andrew Landenberger and Simon Reffold. Landenberger/Reffold excelled on the runs in the light air, probably because Landenberger, an Olympic medalist in the Tornado, is used to sailing wide angles.

Spain's Fernando Garcia Lago and Juan Alvarez Desotomayo, sailing hull number 7384, a boat that the US considered using in the 1992 Olympics, finished third in the first race.

Italians, Nicola Celon and Edoardo Natucci grabbed the lead well before the first weather mark of the second race and held onto it. Celon is very familiar with conditions in Hyeres. He won the Melges 24 World Championship in Hyeres two years ago. The Greeks, Aiuilios Papathanasiou and Apostolos Karnoutsos rounded each mark about a minute behind Celon/Natucci and finished second.

Marazzi/DeMaria held off Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada, Lars Grael and Renato Moura and George Szabo and Rick Peters and Landenberger/Reffold, to take third place in a close finale for the day.

A discard will be factored in following the completion of more than 4 races. Scheidt/Prada have a six point lead over Szabo/Peters and the young Frenchmen are in third.

1. Scheidt/Prada (BRA) - 1, 8, 4, 4 - 17
2. Szabo/Peters (USA) - 10, 1, 5, 7 - 23
3. Bernaz/Berenguier (FRA) - 2, 5, 18, 8 - 33
4. Papathanasiou/Karnoutsos (GRE) - 3, 21, 8, 2 - 34
5. Marazzi/DeMaria (SUI)- 24, 12, 1, 3 - 40

11 Landenberger/Reffold (AUS) 28,20,2,6 - 28

News courtesy of www.worldregattas.com

by Lynn Fitzpatrick

Newsfeed supplied by

#News #Sailing

Star Eastern Europeans - after four races

Sports/News

Weather Forecasts & Live Reports

Buy & Sell/Classifieds