Laser Radial Youth Worlds 10 - 17 December 2005

Report:  Day 4

Stage set for an exciting final

In 22 knot winds that occasionally gusted to 25 knots Frederico Melo from Portugal was in front of Luka Domijan SLO, Mecdet Elmasuglo TUR and James Burman AUS at the first mark. Burman flew down the run to take the lead along with Ivan Taritas CRO. Thereafter as the wind dropped a couple knots, Melo and Taritas took Burman on the second upwind with Burman again taking the lead downwind. Burman fought hard to keep the Portuguese sailor behind on the short upwind leg to the finish but in the end was ground down on the last tack to the finish.

Melo said "In my second race I was fighting with the Croation (Taritas) who I was in front of at the first mark. He was attacking me downwind but at the gate we chose different sides of the gate and his was the bad side. After that I was able to control the race."

Blair McLay talked through his races. "The first race was quite shifty. I maged to work them quite well and got to the first mark in the lead ahead on Antonis Tzortzis from Greece and Mattias Lindfors from Finland. I was able to hold the lead for the rest of the race." The second and third places also remained the same.

The wind continued to drop to 16 knots for the second race. This time McClay was third at the first mark behind Jorge Garcia ESP and Enrico Stazzera from Italy. The Italian was given a two turns penalty on the downwind by the jury which allowed Mclay through to second. McLay overtook the Spaniard. By the end of the race the Garcia had also been overtaken by Tzortis who was having his best day of the series.

In the 4 race final series over the next two days McLay and Melo will met for the first time on the race track to decide the championship title.

Full results: www.laserinternational.org

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