| HYÈRES, FRANCE-(1-5-2003) The light is fading in Hyères for the 5th day of sailing but most of the sailors are still on the water, completing their last race.
The wind increased again the level of difficulty in the Semaine Olympique Française. Starting from the West, it gradually turned to the East to end up on the South! Light and tricky, under 10 knots, it created a real test for the sailors and the racing committee operating many course changes along the day.
In the Mistral class, the Chinese women are still sharing the top 5 places but yesterday leader, Lai Mingshuang dropped one place to second while Yin Jian climbed from third to first position. Today’s race was won by Lee Korziztz from Israel. In the Men, Jon-Paul Tobin is collecting his 6th victory, increasing his lead to 21 points over Israel Gal Fridman.
Three races were accomplished in the 470 and Yngling classes in order to catch up with yesterday’s delay. Swedish team of Johan Molund and Martin Andersson realised a double performance winning 2 races out of three, therefore taking the front of the fleet, 8 points ahead of Australians Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page.
Up and down results in the women fleet. After 10 races, the Greeks Bekatorou / Tsoulfa and Spanish via Dufresne / Azon are still 1st and 2nd overall despite scoring a 20th and 28th in today’s results. The Israeli team of Kornecki / Bouskila have climbed from 11th to 3rd overall after scoring a 4th a 2nd and discarding 2 races of 56 points.
Not upset in the Yngling class where the top 3 remained unchanged. Early leader, Jensen / Jespersen / Kiel are now lying in second position after scoring a 4th, 18th and winning the last. The 1st place is taken by German team of Schuemann / Buelle / Lippert. Other races were won by Australian team helmed by Melanie Dennison and Dutch Thies / Bes / De Jong.
In the 2.4, Frenchman Damien Seguin has added 2 more victories to his impressive result to total 7 wins over 10 races. Thierry Schmitter is only 4 points behind having sailed consistently with a third as worse score.
Siren Sundby is continuing on her steady pace in the Europe class. The Norwegian is proving her talent by excelling in the diverse conditions experienced since the start of the week. She has drastically increased her lead to 22 points over her followers. Trine Abrahamsen and Sarah Blanck are second and third while Sari Multala has dropped to 5th position. Today’s only race was won by Dane, Signe Livbjerg, with Chinese Shen Xiaoying taking second.
In the Tornado, Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen have regained the lead of the fleet after scoring a third place. The French Backes / Voiron are keeping their second position in front of Spanish pair of Echavarri / Paz. Russians Andrey Kiriliuk and Valery Ushkov are today’s winners.
Ben Ainslie has regained the lead of the Finn fleet after scoring a second and a 4th place. Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Sebastien Godefroid have been penalised for a premature start in the 1st race. The Belgium scored another victory in the second race; he is placing 2nd, 11 points behind the Brit. Karlo Kuret takes 3rd place overall. “The wind was everywhere today” commented the Croatian “right, left, up and down!”
No races have been sailed in the Laser or the 49er’s Gold Fleet.
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