| EL ARENAL, SPAIN-(17-4-2004) The boat park was very empty yesterday, the lay day for the Tornados. The “Levante”, easterly winds, blew hard the whole day bringing rain, cold and high seas. The right day to stay dry and warm.
Fortunately the weather changed and day 5 of the Worlds turned out to be sunny and much warmer.
Race 7 started with unsteady 8 knot Northwest conditions and it was abandoned half the way when the wind shifted almost 100°.
As soon as the Southwest settled in the race was restarted with 2 General Recalls and no OCSs. Americans Lovell/Ogletree took the gun followed by Greek team Paschadelis/Garefis, who is fighting with fellow countrymen Theodorakis/Bougiouris (37th in this race) for an Olympic nomination. Third place were Argentineans Lange/Espinola who are having constant top results and are definitely in for the World Title.
The wind was steady in direction and strength - 15 knots - and the sailors had excellent conditions for Race 8. The bay looked beautiful with all the sails speeding upwind and flying the colorful spinnakers and the hulls downwind. The Tornados produced amazing images for the public watching the races.
Sydney silver medalists, Australians Darren Bundock and John Forbes, took the lead of Race 8 from the beginning and sailed clear all the way to the finishing line.
“We had a bad start and were the 4th boat to tack off. Luckily all the good guys were with us. They tacked earlier and we went further. We rounded in first and just disappeared”, says Darren Bundock. The team jumped up 2 positions and is currently 3rd overall.
The Argentineans finished second and are now 10 points ahead of Americans Lovell/Ogletree, 2nd overall. Spanish Echavarri/Paz are also very constant in their results – the worse position so far is a 13th - and have the 4th position.
Dutch Booth/Dercksen, leaders of the event until day 4, had a 28th and a 4th and fell to 5th overall.
“The results show 2 things: how challenging the conditions are and how many good boats we have racing”, explains coach Robbie Daniels about the competitors’ big scores.
From the countries trying to qualify for the Olympics Russia, Portugal and Canada are looking good. New Zealand and Slovenia have 1 point difference between them and Brazil has 3 points to the latter.
The 2 races left of the Championship are going to be decisive. Anything could happen and it will be up in the air the final results. Tomorrow is a day to be watched!
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