Thompson holds lead, Scheidt moves into medal position at Laser Worlds

(Riviera Nayarit, Mexico) Nick Thompson of Great Britain had another
good day at the races to close out the qualifying series in first
place overall in the Laser Standard Men’s World Championship in
Riviera Nayarit, Mexico. Thompson’s 2nd and 4th place allowed him to
increase his advantage over Jean-Baptiste Bernaz of France to five
points, a margin by which Laser Championships can be won or lost.
Tomorrow the sailors will be split into gold and silver fleets to
begin three days of finals series racing.

Celebrated Laser World Champion and Olympic medalist, Robert Scheidt,
moved into third place with two more top-ten results while the
previous third place holder, Croatia’s Tonci Stipanovic, scored an 8th
and 25th. Stipanovic now has to count a 14th, his previous discard
race, but holds on to fourth place overall.

The top-3 sailors at the end of qualification have all, so far,
maintained single figure results excluding their discard races.
However, a close look at the score cards reveals that several sailors
are starting to find the consistency that was missing at the beginning
of the championship. These include the best sailor of the day, Wannes
Van Laar of Belgium, who posted two second place finishes today to
jump five places into fifth overall.

Today’s slightly lighter winds from a more southerly direction
provided another mix in the results on this final qualification day.
Changes in the wind strength and direction were minimal, between 215
and 230 degrees and 9 to 12 knots during the three hours of racing.
However, these variations were enough to keep things interesting for
the sailors and proved sufficient to provide significant changes in
positions from one race to the next.

With three days of Finals Series racing to come, the sailors are
certainly aware that the coming days of will be long and twice as
hard, as the world’s top sailors now go head-to-head. Sailing skills
need to be at a sailor’s best. Places will be won and lost by a meter
or a second. A cool head under the hot sun and maximum concentration
will be needed to stay consistent over the upcoming six scheduled
races – even more so if the weather changes.

Overall Results after 8 races with 1 discard
1. Nick Thompson GBR 16pts
2. Jean-Baptiste Bernaz FRA 21pts
3. Robert Scheidt BRA 33pts
4. Tonci Stipanovic CRO 37pts
5. Wannes van Laer BEL 39pts
6 Matthew Wearn AUS 41pts.
7. Tom Burton 42pts
8. Marco Gallo ITA 46pts
9. Philipp Buhl GER 46pts
10. Sam Meech NZL 50pts

Results –
http://www.laserworlds2016.org/index.php/mstand-results

Eric Faust
Executive Secretary
International Laser Class Association