Tom Ashley on Day 4 in Denmark. Image copyright Vincenzio Baglione.
by Jodie Bakewell-White
Tom Ashley is in the hunt for a World Championship medal with the RS:X Men’s title up for grabs in one final medal race to be sailed in Kerteminde, Denmark tonight. Lying fourth after a hard fought five days of racing so far, Ashley is within reach of the podium.
Team-mate Jon-Paul Tobin is also in the starting line-up sitting in seventh place in the top ten sailors who will compete in the quick-fire double points remaining race.
Here’s what Tom Ashley had to say at the conclusion of the penultimate day:
“I had a better day today. We only managed one race as the wind was very light and unstable, but I had a solid race to finish 6th.”
“This means that I go into tomorrow's double points medal race in fourth position, eight points from the lead and four points from third. It's all on!”
“There was a bit of shuffling on the leaderboard today- lots of good guys had a very bad race,” he notes. “I am looking forward to the medal race.”
Poitr Myzska (POL) holds the lead going into the final race on 35, with just a one point margin over second placed Przemslaw Miarczynski also of Poland, on 36. In third place is Israel’s’ Nimrod Mashiah in 39, four ahead of Ashley on 43.
2010 Laser World Championship
Things are heating up at the 2010 Laser World Championships at Hayling Island, Great Britain where a team of seven kiwis are competing. The NZL Sailing Team continues to feature strongly at the top of the fleet with four New Zealanders placed in the top ten.
Five days of racing are completed, with two days yet to run before the title for this year is decided. Overnight two more races were staged, in what appears to have been a tough day on the water for some including Beijing gold medallist and defending World Champion Paul Goodison (GBR) who had his worst day yet.
More shuffling on the leader board see’s Andy Maloney come through to be the best placed kiwi and sitting in second equal with only Tom Slingsby of Australia out in front. Maloney was 20th and 5th overnight but discards the 20th and has a points total of 41, equal with GBR’s Nick Thompson who had a good day.
Josh Junior, Andrew Murdoch and Mike Bullot are lying eighth, ninth and tenth respectively after day five of the regatta. Bullot was rocked by a black flag in the first race of the day which hits hard in the points score.
The NZL Sailing Team Laser sailors are supported by coaches Mark Howard and Jez Fanstone, while Dave Robertson and Grant Beck are coaching support to the RS:X sailors in Denmark. John Clinton is coach at the Finn Gold Cup in San Francisco.
2010 RS:X World Championships, 29th August – 4th September
New Zealand’s provisional standings
Men’s Championship (111 sailors)
4th Tom Ashley (1, 5, 3, 5, 18, 2, 27, 4, 6)
7th Jon-Paul Tobin (6, 6, 1, 2, 2, 17, 20, 2, 42)
82nd (16th in silver fleet) Antonio Cozzolino (41, 39, 21, 24, 41, 58, 21, 16)
Women’s Championship (66 sailors)
34th (1st in silver fleet) Kate Ellingham (11, 14, 16, 18, 20, 1, 3)
36th (3rd in silver fleet) Stefanie Williams (14, 13, 14, 29, 18, 11, 1)
41st (8th in silver fleet) Natalia Kosinska (28, 22, 27, 15, 9, 4, 11)
4th (16th in silver fleet) Alice Monk (18, 20, 22, 26, 25, 21, 16)
2010 Laser World Championships, 30th August – 5th September
New Zealand’s provisional standings after day three (Total feet: 159)
2nd = Andy Maloney (2, 22, 4, 10, 2, 11, 3, 4, 20, 5)
8th Josh Junior (3, 22, 1, 2, 7, 5, 8, 29, 12, 21)
9th Andrew Murdoch (6, 4, 11, 2, 8, 22, 9, 1, 24, 24)
10th Mike Bullot (1, 2, 5, 13, 9, 3, 3, 23, BFD54, 30)
24th Max Andrews (12, 41, 19, 7, 26, 8, 4, 34, 13, 10)
31st Sam Meech (10, 46, 5, 14, 7, 13, 24, 2, BFD54, 33)
49th James Sandall (42, 7, 6, 14, 14, RAF55, 12, 5, 43, 49)
2010 Finn Gold Cup, San Francisco, USA
Dates: 30th August – 4th September.
New Zealand’s provisional standings after six races (Total fleet: 87)
17th Dan Slater (32, 17, 28, 11, 26, 4, 9, 11)
34th Nik Burfoot (24, 33, 42, 30, 34, 31, 36, 31)
36th Matt Coutts (37, 48, 26, 20, 32, 52, 35, 28)
62nd Bradley Douglas (62, 88/DNF, 52, 61, 51, 60, 64, 59)
71st Rob Coutts (63, 57, 72, 62, 82, 65, 78, 69)
73rd Ray Hall (61, 68, 65, 88DNF, 68, 58, 88DNF, 88ZFP)
Yachting New Zealand
