Cox in Contention at Sail Sydney
Day two of Sail Sydney featured some promising results for the Australian Sailing Team including top three finishes in the Laser, RS:X, 49er and Skud 18 classes.
Australians Daniel Fitzgibbon and WAIS athlete Rachel Cox continue to chase down Great Britain’s Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell in the Skud 18 class and after day two trail the pair by just five points.
Fitzgibbon and Cox finished with a second and a third on Tuesday while fellow Australians and 2011 Australian Sailing Team members Ame Barnbrook and Lindsay Mason are in fourth position after a third and a fifth.
Should races go the way of Fitzgibbon and Cox on Wednesday, a Sail Sydney title could go down to the wire between the two crews.
Tom Slingsby started the day fifth in the Laser fleet following a slow Monday where he finished with a seventh and a 10th but he got his regatta back on track today with a fifth and a first.
The results moved him up to second overall, behind runaway leader, Australian Sailing Development Squad member Tom Burton, who has sailed exceptionally well on his home waters.
“Today was a better day, I’m still a bit rusty but I’m slowly getting back into it,” said Slingsby. “Race one yesterday was the first time I’d been in the boat since the medal race in Perth a couple of weeks back so it took a little while to get back up to speed.”
“We had a real mixture today, right down to only about one knot of wind at some stages and then up to 10 knots,” he said. “On top of that we were racing right under north head in a north easterly which made it incredibly shifty and tricky for everyone.”
“In the second race today I had a really good start, got the right side and was able to push on from there. I did well on the first beat and then extended my lead on the downwind but towards the end Tom Burton caught back up and pushed me to the finish.”
“I’ve had a few speed issues this week but with more time in the boat I’ll get that back,” said Slingsby.
Jessica Crisp continued her strong run in the RS:X class and ended the day in a three-way tie for the lead with Flavia Tartaglini of Italy and Jannicke Stalstrom of Norway.
Crisp won the first race of the day before being disqualified after being judged to have been too close to a ferry during the race but bounced back with consecutive second places to round out the day.
In the 49er fleet Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen had a tough day by their high standards with a third, a fifth and a fourth leaving them second overall, six points behind Peter Burling and Blair Tuke of New Zealand after six races.
“We didn’t have the best day today and in of the two races we were over the line at the start and had to go back which wasn’t ideal,” said Jensen. “Things we were doing weren’t quite working today, we were taking a lot of risks and some were working and some weren’t, but we’ll bounce back.”
“We’ll assess the situation tomorrow and see how we go and work on getting the six points back on the Kiwis,” he said.
In the Laser Radial class Krystal Weir had a tough opening race of the day with a black flag, before fighting back with a fourth and an 11th to leave her ninth overall.
– Yachting Australia