Laser Radial Youth Worlds 10 - 17 December 2005

Report:  Day 5

All on the last Day

The first two of the final four races of the Laser Radial Youth World Championship lived up to the billing of an exciting final but not in the way expected.

At the start of the first race in 20 to 22 knot winds, Frederico Melo POR, who was in second overall, made his intentions clear by starting on port tack at the pin end and crossing the fleet ! "It was a great way to start" he said "but it was then difficult if you want to control the fleet when half go left and the other half go right"! He did a pretty good job rounding the first mark in second behind Ireland's Ryan Seaton and ahead of 16 year old Maxime Cariou from France. Meanwhile overnight leader, Blair Mclay NZL had a poor start near the port end and the depressing sight of seeing his main rival cross 3 boat lengths in front soon after the start. McLay dug himself out to round the first mark seventh.

Melo said "I was very worried about Blair and I let him pass me on the second upwind along with Ryan and James Burman AUS. I then had a good downwind and I got him back. I was in the lead at the last mark but I was still watching Blair and let James through to win and I finished second." Mclay finished seventh, his worst result so far and now the Portuguese had the advantage of a good finals race in the bag although McLay was still ahead on points.

In the second race, in lighter winds, Melo rounded the first mark in the lead ahead of Blake Warner USA and Antonis Tzortis GRE with McLay in eigth. The downwind and second upwind legs saw places changes in the top ten with 16 year old Burman having another good race to pull through to second ahead of Warner. McLay was also recovering to round the second upwind mark in fifth. By that time the Portuguese was well ahead as was Burman. A strong last 3 legs by McLay got him up to third but with a second discard in force after 10 races he is now one point behind Melo in the overall standings with the disadvantage of not being able to discard more than one race in the final four races.

Overall results after 10 races and two discards:

1 Frederico Melo, Male, POR, 18Y, 9 Pts
2 Blair McLay, Male, NZL, 18Y, 10 Pts
3 Ivan Taritas, Male, CRO, 18Y, 22 Pts
4 James Burman, Male, AUS, 16Y, 26 Pts
5 Antonios Tzortzis, Male, GRE, 18Y, 27 Pts
6 Jorge Jover Garcia, Male, ESP, 18Y, 40 Pts
7 Pierre Angelo Collura, Male, FIN, 16Y, 47 Pts
8 Ryan Seaton, Male, IRL, 18Y, 49 Pts
9 Kyle Rogachenko, Male, USA, 17Y, 49 Pts
10 Daniel Jakobsson, Male, BRA, 18Y, 49 Pts

Full results: www.laserinternational.org

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