| Australia. Alcoa IFDS World Disabled Sailing Champs: Strong day for the home team |
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| Sunday, 22 January 2006 | |
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John Roberson: On a day when Germany overtook the British at the top of the leaderboard, Australian sailors maintained their pressure for medals, with Jamie Dunross's crew winning a race, while Aaron hill moved into a podium position. Jamie Dunross, Colin Harrison and Graeme Martin in the Sonar put first and tenth places on the scoreboard, slipping to fourth on the leaderboard, while Aaron Hill's seventh and third in the 2.4 Metres put him in third overall. Jamie Dunross recounted his day, "a good first race we're really happy with. That's actually our first win in a world title event, which we're really happy about, the only downside to it is we didn't have our regular crew with us, but Graeme sailed like a champion today. "In the second race we really got done on the start line, someone just wouldn't go up when we wanted them to, and basically we were playing catch-up for the rest of the day." It was Germany's day on the water, with Heiko Kroeger chalking up a 1st and 8th places in the 2.4 Metre class, while Jens Kroker and his crew of Holger Schoenberg and Tobias Schueltz, scored a very satisfying 1st and 2nd places in the Sonar. These results put the Jens Kroker/Schoenberg/Schueltz team level on points with the British team of John Robertson, Hannah Strodel and Stephen Thomas, but on a countback, the Germans take the top spot. Heiko Kroeger's position at the top is as much courtesy of Helena Lucas's mistake as his good sailing, in the second race of the day, which dropped her down through the fleet. Jens Kroker thoroughly enjoyed his day, "I think it was a magnificent day," he said through his smile, "couldn't have been better. I think we can be very satisfied with the day, it went very well." It was a gutsy day on the water for the competitors in both fleets, with the breeze gusting to over 30 knots, when the Fremantle Doctor was given a helping hand by the fringe effect of a cyclone gathering off north western Australia. Helena Lucas finished just 4 seconds behind Heiko Kroeger in the first race, but commenting on the second race she said, "I was up near the front, but I ended up doing two turns, which was a bit stupid." It was another Brit who took the gun in the second 2.4 Metre race of the day, with Megan Pascoe surprised at her success. "I was a bit surprised to be up there," she admitted, "because I just seemed to tack, and tack, and tack, and there I was at the front." After four races of the eleven heat series, the points at the top of both fleets are incredibly close, and with Saturday a lay day, the teams will have time to consider what they have to do to win. Results: After 4 races, no discard. Sonars 1. Jens Kroker/Schoenberg/Schuetz GER 10pts 2. John Robertson/Stodel/Thomas GBR 10pts 3. Dror Cohen/Efrati/Vexler ISR 18pts 4. Jamie Dunross/Harrison/Martin AUS 19pts 8. Peter Thomson/Conder/Astwood AUS 32pts 14. Stephen Churm/Power/Cull AUS 51pts 2.4 Metres 1. Heiko Kroeger GER 15pts 2. Helena Lucas GBR 16pts 3. Aaron Hill AUS 24pts 16. Rachael Cox AUS 65pts www.2006ifdsworlds.com.au |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 22 January 2006 ) |
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