#BACARDI CUP – London Olympic pair Peter O'Leary and David Burrows took another race win in their new boat in Miami yesterday to put them two points off the overall lead gonig into today's final two races of the prestigious cup.
In further good news in the irish camp O'Leary's brother Nicholas in his first week saiing in the Star keelboat is 11th overall in the 67-boat fleet after taking a sixth, one place behind his brother in yesterday afternoon's fifth race of the series. WM Nixon has more on this brothers in arms story in today's Irish independent here.
For the second day in a row O'Leary and Burrows won the first race of the day in the Star class which is competing for the 85th Cup. Xavier Rohart and Pierre-Alexis Ponsot (France) were second across the line, and when they won race two, they were propelled to the top of the overall standings with nine points. O'Leary and Burrows, after finishing fifth in the second race, have 11 points and are followed by 2008 Star World Champions Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki (Poland) with 15 points after finishes of 9-3 today. Austria's five-time Olympian Hans Spitzauer, sailing with Gerd Habermueller, is fourth overall with 17 points, followed by 2007 BacardI Cup champion Hamish Pepper and crew Jim Turner (New Zealand) with 23 points.
"It was a really great day," said Xavier Rohart while admitting that he and Ponsot – with whom he has been sailing since 2008 – did not expect to do this well. "This was not our favorite weather, but we had good work with our coach. Miami is good training for Weymouth [site of the 2012 Olympic Regatta]. It's why we are here, and to know the people we will be sailing against. To win [the Bacardi Cup] would be a very good end for our training." When Rohart races in Weymouth, it will be his sixth Olympic Regatta. His best finish – a bronze medal – was earned at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Full results here
Racing concludes today Saturday, March 10.
