The weather’s gone berserk! At a time when the Agios Kosmas Olympic Sailing Centre was in the doldrums, with hardly any wind blowing and the competitors in the Athens 2003 Regatta praying in vain for a little wind, suddenly there were flashes of lightning and bolts of thunder tearing the sky, with a storm approaching threatening. But the summer downpour passed further to the North, however, the muggy heat and relative calm at Agios Kosmas was enough to put everything and everyone into disarray, especially the sailors.

The organisers eventually managed to run one race for each of the Star and Tornado classes, but in the Men’s and Women’s Europe, Laser, Mistral and 49er classes the races had to be cancelled.

In the Tornado class, Australians Darren Bundock and John Forbes, who had won the silver medal in the Sydney Olympic Games, finished first with ease in today’s race (7^th overall) and are the uncontested contenders for the Gold medal. The Australian craft was in the lead from the start of the race and finished first, four minutes and one second ahead of the American craft that finished second, while the Argentinian craft finished third.

 The Australian champions, who are No 2 in the current ISAF World rankings, have shown unparalleled constancy and have finished first in the 1^st, 2^nd, 6^th and 7^th races of the Athens 2003 Regatta, and were third in the 3^rd, fifth in the 4^th and 11^th in the 5^th races, with a total of only 12 penalty points.

The Argentinian craft (Santiago Raul Lange-Carlos Mauricio Espinola) is second in the general ranking with 23 penalty points, while Austria’s Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher, Sydney Gold medallists and No1 in the ISAF World ranking, finished 5^th today and have 31 penalty points.

The Greek craft with Antonis Bougiouris and Dimitris Theodorakis finished 15^th, and is 15^th in the general ranking with 66 penalty points.

General ranking after seven races:

 

	Name	NOC	7th	Penalty Points
1	BUNDOCK-FORBES	AUS	1	12
2	LANGE-ESPINOLA	ARG	3	23
3	HAGARA-STEINACHER	AUT	5	31
4	MCMILLAN-BULKELEY	GBR	6	32
5	ECHAVARRI-PAZ	ESP	10	36
6	BOOTH-DERCKSEN	NED	17	40
7	LANDENBERGER-POLGAR	GER	7	41
8	KIRILYUK-USHKOV	RUS	4	47

In the Star class, the German craft managed a good start in today’s race (9^th overall) and stayed in the lead for most of the race, but fell behind to 6^th place just before the penultimate crossing. At this point the Australian craft caught up and led the race, finishing first, 24 seconds ahead of French craft which finished second and 25 seconds ahead of the Canadian one, which finished third, only one second behind the second craft. The Germans ended up in 5^th place. The Greek craft with Leonidas Pelekanakis and Giorgos Kontogouris finished 13^th and is now in 16^th place of the general ranking with 110 penalty points. The Brazilian craft with Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira, Bronze Medal winners in the Sydney Olympic Games, is first in this class with 35 penalty points. Second with 39 penalty points is the craft from Bermuda with Peter Frederick Bromby and Lee White, who were fourth in Sydney and at the moment are No 5 in the ISAF World rankings.

General ranking after nine races:

 

	Name	NOC	9th	Penalty Points
1	GRAEL-FERREIRA	BRA	8	35
2	BROMBY-WHITE	BER	15	39
3	PICKEL-KOLB	GER	5	39
4	CAYARD-TRINTER	USA	4	40
5	KATS-MARTENS	NED	12	49
6	McDONALD-BJORN	CAN	3	54
7	BEASHEL-GILES	AUS	1	58
8	ROHART-RAMBEAU	FRA	2	58

The Athens 2003 Regatta will continue tomorrow for the 7^th day with races scheduled in the Europe, Laser, Mistral (Men and Women), Tornado, 470 (Men and Women), Finn and Yngling classes. It was also decided to run races in the 49er class, instead of having the day off as originally planned.

NOTE: After protests have been judged, general rankings may change in some classes.

Source: Event Press