The forecast winds of 10 to 15 knots turned into 25 knots plus with rain showers affecting visibility.   After a short delay waiting for a gap in the rain showers the gold fleet got away first time.  At the first mark the Scandinavian heavy weather specialists, Karl Suneson from Sweden and Fredrik Westman from Finland were first to show and quickly pulled ahead of the chasing pack on the downwind legs.  Suneson said: “It was good Viking weather!”  Overnight leader, Robert Scheidt from Brazil, was sixth round the first mark.  He gained two places on the first reach but in his own words: “I sailed too conservatively on the run downwind with too much centreboard and vang.  When I gybed I capsized and dropped to 12th but I was happy to recover to 6th.   Suneson and Westman were to far away to be caught and the interest was on the minor places.  Ed Wright from Great Br

The wind dropped to 20 knots for race two.  Mark Howard from Great Britain sailed a fine upwind leg with good speed to lead Daniel Hannemann from Germany at the first mark.  This leading pair held on to their positions until the last but one mark. At the end of the last downwind leg Howard overlooked a 20-degree shift in the wind and mistakenly started leading the fleet directly to the finish instead of broad reaching down to the last mark of the trapezoid course.  Hannemann was first to realise his mistake in following Howard and sailed through his lee to take the lead and the winning gun.  Scheidt, Luis Martinez from Spain and Casey also got through Howard who finished fifth.
 
With four races remaining Scheidt holds an eight-point lead over Casey after nine races.  If one more race is completed a second discard comes into play which can still affect the overall positions especially if the forecast light winds for the next two days are correct.  Scheidt summed it up “There is still two days of sailing left and a lot can happen.”
 
Full results, reports and photos at http://www.laserworlds2002.com/senior/
 
Overall results with one discard:
 
Seq     Name              Scores   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9
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  1 BRA Robert Scheidt      19.0  15   1   2   5   1   1   1   6   2
  2 AUS Brendan Casey       27.0   3   4   1   2   5   5  23   3   4
  3 SWE Karl Suneson        32.0   8   2  10   1   1   1   9   1   9
  4 FIN Fredrik Westman     39.0  12   2   2  41   7   2   1   2  11
  5 GBR Edward Wright       40.0   2   1   1  18   3   9  10   4  10
  6 RSA Gareth Blanckenberg 45.0   1   5   4   5   2   8   7  13  24
  7 GBR Paul Goodison       49.0   8   3  19   4   3   4   2  24   6
  8 ITA Diego Negri         61.0  19   5   7  16  12   3   3   8   7
  9 SLO Vasilij Zbogar      65.0   5   8  10   4   5  10   5  18  23
 10 GBR Mark Howard         67.0  12   3   8  34   4   2  14  19   5
 11 SWE Daniel Birgmark     73.0  23  13   6  10   7   4  14   5  14
 12 ESP Luis Martinez       81.0   9   6 ocs  14  18  14   2  15   3
 13 BEL Philippe Bergmans   83.0  14  10   8  15  19   5  11   7  13
 14 CRO Mate Arapov         86.0  17  12   3  13  10 bfd   4  10  17
 15 FIN Roope Suomalainen   88.0  39   6   9   3   4   3   3  43  21
 16 AUT Andreas Geritzer    90.0  11  13  13  23   2   6  11  11  30
 17 SWE Peter Santen        93.0   6   8   5   7   8  18  10  31  55
 18 SWE Rasmus Myrgren      98.0   7  16  17  24   9  11   5  14  19
 19 CAN Bernard Luttmer     109.0 24  11  13  20  15   7   4  25  15
 20 GBR Jim Taylor          115.0 11  14  16  17  11  11   8  27  54

Source: Laser International