Another day of light winds made it a long day on the water at the Laser Radial World Championships and saw places changes amongst the leaders. After a Brazilian dominated the first day of the men's championship the overall lead was taken by Russian, Igor Lisovenko. With a second and a third place position in today´s races, he now has a two point advantage over Brazilians, Fábio Dutra and Eduardo Couto. Couto, leader in the first day of races, blames the windspeed for the fall - it oscilated between seven and eight knots. ''Today was complicated, but if the wind comes back up, I should be able to sail on top''.

The windspeed is not a problem at all for Australian, Sarah Blanck, who moved from from third place to first overall in the Women's championship. She placed fourth at the Athens Olympic Games in the Europe class, and spent almost a year without competing. She just restarted training six weeks ago. This is her first championship in the Laser Radial. "'I came here to decide if I should keep sailing or not. I enjoy sailing with a low wind and I am doing great so far'." British competitor, Penny Mountford, came in second and American, Paige Railey, in third.

Even though they are still far from the lead, Brazilian, Bruno Rodrigues and Croatian, Tina Mihelic, had a spectacular day today. Both won the two races they were in and raised their standings in the overall results. Nineteen year old Bruno traded 21st place for seventh, and also got a bonus: in the last race of the day, his older brother, Tiago, came in second, starting a family party on the docks. ''It was perfect. I made no mistakes and got an even better result than I was hoping for!'', said the lucky youngster.
Tina recovered from a disappointing Sunday, in which she finished 33rd overall. Now she has jumped to sixth place. European Champion, Sarah Steyaert FRA, had a disappointing start to the day, receiving a penalty that placed her 27th in the first race.which has cost her the overall lead. However she recovered with a fifth in the afternoon and should be able to discard her bad result after Tuesday's racing which is the last day of racing before the men's and women's fleet are split into gold and silver groups.

The competition continues until Friday for the 165 athletes from 39 participating countries.

Written by: Ana Peyroton , Arthur Ferraz e Alice Penaforte
Phone: (85) 3458.1167 - E-mail: imprensa@divulgaacao.com - Site: http://www.divulgaacao.com edited by Jeff Martin

The Laser Radial Men's & Women's Championships (December 3rd to 9th) and Radial Youth (December 10th to 17th). The events are organized by the Ceara State Sailing Federation in conjunction with th International Laser Class Association with support from Brazilian Sailing Federation and Yacht Club of Fortaleza. The sponsors are: Ceara State Government, through the Sports and Youth Bureau, Marina Park Hotel and Hamburg Süd. The event also has the support of the Brazilian Navy, Banco do Nordeste do Brasil, Mayor of Fortaleza, Unilink, Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club and Pirata Bar.