RS:X World Championships Day 8 report update

Today did not look promising. Not promising at all. Bright sunshine maybe but the wind was absent. The AP duly went up at 12:00hrs and the guys were held on the beach for 30 minutes. Then the fun and games began.

The yellow group went out for the first start of the day. After one general recall they got into race 5. The wind was still not cooperating, with wild shifts in wind direction until after 37 minutes with what were once the fleet leaders buried in the pack, the win gods threw  a curve ball and shifted 100 degrees plus.

The Race Committee had no choice. The ISAF Race Management Guidelines state clearly that the PRO can shorten or lengthen a leg but he cannot shorten a course. The Race was abandoned and the fleet was sent ashore to recover their sense of humour and take a break.

The blue fleet had more luck. Their only race of the day went off without a hitch. Dorian van Rijsselberghe [NED] recovered his equilibrium and took the gun. Piotr Myszka [POL] kept the pressure up by posting a 2nd whilst his compatriot, Przemyslaw Miarcyzinski  bombed to 12th. Shahar Zubari [ISR] finally made an appearance in the top 3. And,  Zac Plavsic [CAN] put in his most dissapointing race of the championship so far to drop out of the top 10.

The one young gun still confounding the sceptics is Eliot Carney who is rattling off mid top 10 finishes as if he had been at this game at this level for years... which he hasn't.

Now back to the Yellow fleet, who were finally recalled to the starting zone at going on 16:00hrs. Nimrod Mashiah [ISR] was one athlete who was heaving a sigh of relief when the first race of the day was blown off. He was deep in the pack and dreading every moment of it. In the re-run he finished 4th but now shares top spot overall with Dorian with a massive 6 points off 5 races.

There are now 6 points covering places 5 to 11 with a queue of people waiting to take the Otis in to the top 10 if any one puts a foot wrong again. 8 of them are carrying a discard they would rather forget leaving Nimrod Mashiah [ISR] and Piotr Myszka [POL] in s strong position going into the gold fleet racing starting tomorrow.

That covers the drama at the business end of the fleet, so lets look at who made the cut and who has been consigned to the silver fleet
Santiago Grillo [COL] is the last man in with David Mier y Teran just one point ahead. These two will be fighting tooth and nail for the last Olympic qualification place. There are 30 countries in the gold fleet including Great Britain who have a place at the Games by right as the host country.

28 nations will qualify here in Perth at the ISAF Sailing World Championships so although these guys are a long way off the medal places competition will be intense right through to the last man standing.

The 17 nations left in the silver fleet will get their chance to qualify at the 2012 RS:X World Windsurfing Championships in Cadiz, Spain in March where the winners will get to share a US $45,000 prize pot.

RS:X Men's Top 10

1. NED8 Dorian van Rijsselberghe 6.0
2. ISR21 Nimrod Mashiah 6.0
3. POL82 Piotr Myszka 8.0
4. Przemyslaw Miarczinski 10.0
5. NZL181 Tom Ashley 14.0
6. FRA6 Julien Bontemps 17.0
7. GER3 Toni Wilhelm 17.0
8. ESP7 Ivan Pastor 18.0
9. GBR7 Elliot Carney 18.0
10. POR75 Joao Rodrigues 20.0

Full Results

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Photo credit: Vincenzo Baglione