Strong winds and rough seas test Laser Radial sailors

12:45 PM Wed 5 Aug 2009 GMT

'Laser Radial Youth and Mens Worlds - Day 1' Click Here to view large photo

Strong winds and rough seas test Laser Radial sailors on the first day of the World Men and Youth championships in Karatsu, Japan.

Karatsu is a great place to have a World Championship and again turned on superb sailing conditions with a warm sunny day, 20 knot NNE winds, a choppy sea and building swell. It was daunting conditions for some of the less experienced sailors and some scored DNF for being outside the time limit. However the experienced sailors had a wonderful day with real gains to be made on the reaches and runs. Each fleet had 2 races with 37 youth women, two fleets of 47 and 48 youth men and 58 in the men's fleet. All eight races were within 3 minutes of the target time of one hour end this Japanese Race committee again have set a very standard to aspire to for the rest of the week.

In the youth women's fleet Ashley Stoddart, fresh from winning the silver fleet in the Women Championship, had a win in race 1 and a second in race 2 to be the overall leader. Following very closely is Mathilde de Kerangat from France who was third in race 1 and a very convincing winner in race 2. Alexandra South is in third place after a second in race 1. She was comfortably in second place in race 2 until she capsized rounding the last mark before a short beat to the finish.. She managed to right her boat and finish fourth.

In the men's fleet Marcin Rudawski from Poland appeared to enjoy these conditions to have two bullets today to lie in first place overall. Hisaki Hagai was holding second place but was disqualified in race 2 after a protest. Jan Ter Haer Sierk from Netherlands is in second overall from his fellow countryman Ben Koppelaar.

Laser Radial Youth and Mens Worlds - Day 1 - Click Here to view large photo

The racing in the Blue Fleet for the youth boys had first, second and third in both races as the same sailors - Arian Aleksander from Poland, Toma Visic from Croatia and Oliver Loughead from Ireland. The yellow fleet was much more mixed with Tobias Kirschbaum from Nederlands having a 2nd and third, Filip Koblielski from Poland with a win and a twelfth and Chris Barnard of USA with a second and a seventh. Overall results have Arian first on 2 points, Toma second on 4 points, Tobias third on 5 points and Oliver next on 6 points.

There will some tired sailors today after some dramatic capsizes.

Last night sailors experienced an impressive opening ceremony in the Town Centre with local high school students carrying the 30 country flags representing the competitors. A local high school band accompanied the proceedings. The local dignitaries welcomed the group of nearly 200 sailors and their coaches and support teams to the city of Karatsu and the wonderful sailing waters of this region. A reception was held nearby with a wonderful array of Japanese food. A group of male dancers performed a traditional dance and then the famous Japanese drums and their talented performers came on stage to delight the assembled company.

by John Parrish