| RIVA DEL GARDA, ITALY-(11-8-2003) Croatia completed their dominance of the 2003 Laser Radial Youth and Open World Championships when, in an exciting last day of racing, Tonko Kuuzmanic CRO lost his overnight lead and all but lost his chance of retaining his title. In 10 knots of wind he was buried at the start and could only recover to 22nd, his worst result of the series so far. Meanwhile his fellow countryman Tonci Stipanovic took over the lead with a first place that lifted him from 7th place to first overall. Overnight second and third placed Jonasz Stelmazyk POL and Campbell Davidson GBR also found the going tough. Stelmazyk scored a 12th, whilst Davidson's 34th used up his final series discard, and his chance of overall honours rested on the others having a bad final race.
Going into the second race Stipanovic held a 2 point lead over Stelmazyk with Kuzmanic a further point behind.
In the slightly fresher wind Davidson led round the first mark, but his nearest 3 rivals were also in the hunt, with Stipanovic sitting comfortably in second place. From then on it was fingers crossed that the `Ora` wind did not die before the end of the race. For once the wind held. Davidson did all he could by holding his lead to finish ahead of Stipanovic.
Stipanovic's title was secure, repeating the last day's swapping of places in the Open Championship when the leading Croatians were overtaken by fellow countrymen.
Croatia also repeated their victories in the same events last year which, added to their second place in the senior European Championship the previous week, demonstrated the benefits of their squad system and intensive training and also laid down a marker for the future. They have to be one of the best bets for an Olympic medal in the Laser class in the next 5 years.
Final results
Scores take into account 2 discards
1, CRO 165703, STIPANOVIC Tonci, Male, 28,0
2, CRO 177989, KUZMANIC Tonko, Male, 33,0
3, POL 176711, STELMASZYK Jonasz, Male, 34,0
4, GBR 176707, DAVIDSON Campbell, Male U 17, 38,0
5, ESP 172191, PADRON Javier, Male, 54,0
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