Dun Laoghaire sailor Matthew O'Dowd will be hoping for wind at the Laser Radial Youth Worlds in Largs today so that he can bring a discard into play. Dowd will want to shed a black flag disqualification that he has carried from day one and get on with the business of notching up top three results in the group stages.
O'Dowd's record reads 2, BFD, 3, so far. He sat out the first race yesterday with a black flag penalty carried over from a race abandoned on the first day of racing.
He's now in 55th overall until the discard comes in.
Irish sailors Ross Vaughan in 29th and Ala Ruigrok in 40th take over the mantle of top Irish for now, with Ruigrok posting his best result, a seventh, yesterday.
Ruth Harrington is top Irish in the girls' fleet in 59th overall, with Saskia Tidey in 79th.
A steady six to eight knot breeze saw new stock emerging at the head of the leaderboard. With 42 nations represented and some of the world’s most talented youngsters here in Largs for this major international regatta, only the brave would, at this stage of the regatta, attempt to speculate as to who could emerge likely winners.
The racing today couldn’t have been much closer in both fleets with the consistent Americans scoring a collection of first places. In the Girls’ fleet, 17-year-old Erika Reineke from Florida, who took bronze at the recent ISAF Youth World Championship in Turkey, kicked off well with two second places in yesterday’s opening races, and today sailed impressively to better that position with two firsts. She is now in a strong position in the Girls’ fleet overall, just one point behind Manami Doi (JPN). Doi (Yellow flight) sailed an exceptional race again today, adding another first to her 2,1 scoreline.
In the Boys’ category, Sixteen-year-old Mitchell Kiss (USA) provided spectators with a fine display of impressive racing with a first place in Race 1, as did Yuval Schwartz (ISR). Fresh from the Europa Cup at Warnemünde Week, he also notched up a win in the first race in his flight. But it was Giovanni Coccoluto (ITA) with a win and a fifth who now leads the fleet by two points from Paul Leroy (FRA). With a 14th and 4th today, Elliot Hanson (GBR) is still lying in third place.
After today’s racing, a pattern is clearly starting to establish itself but there is one day of qualifying races remaining so it is still ‘early days’. Once the necessary four or more qualifying races are complete, boats will be assigned to final series fleets Gold, Silver and Bronze on the basis of their ranks in the qualifying series. The finals to determine the world champions will take place on Saturday and Sunday.
The event website is HERE.
