Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page retain lead on Day 3 of 2011 470 Australian Championship
After completing their sail in six races at the 2011 470 Australian Championships, Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page managed to continue their overall lead at the conclusion of Day 3. The pair put up some convincing performances during first six races, including
a discard race, to stay on top with 12 points. The duo now has a nine point lead over Nederland’s pair of Sven Coster and Kalle Coster.
Page and Belcher dominated the fleet on the first two days, clinching the first four races of the regatta but on Day 3, they could not continue their winning streak and tumbled down to number 22 and 8 in both races of Day 3. However, despite these low scores,
they held on to the overall lead, thanks to the one discarded race.
The fleet raced in the medal race course for a berth at the upcoming 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships. The medal race also gave all crews a taste of the challenges and skills of their opponents, who they will be facing at the upcoming championships.
Belcher told the local media that they had quite a good third day to get some experience on the medal race course. He added that they have certainly got some understanding of the conditions and environment in that area.
He explained, “We started the day off in a gusty easterly 12-15 knots, with the top mark only about 100 meters from the beach. The conditions changed throughout and eventually the sea breeze came in. We were only about 100 metres from the finish in first
in the opening race before the committee abandoned the race and waited for the sea breeze to steady.”
He said that the races were close and intense and they made some good decisions along with some mistakes but at the finish of Day 3, they were still on the top.
Top 10 standings at the conclusion of championship:
1. AUS 11 Mathew Belcher, Malcolm Page 1, 1, 1, 1, (22), 8 = 12 points
2. NED 1 Sven Coster, Kalle Coster 8, 4, 3, (10), 3, 3 = 21 points
3. USA 1713 Stuart McNay, Graham Biehl 2, 3, 2, 5, (17), 10 = 22 points
4. JPN 4 Ryunosuke Harada, Yugo Yoshida 4, 2, 14, (21), 2, 1 = 23 points
5. AUS 13 Sam Kivell, Will Ryan 3, (18), 5, 4, 4, 7 = 23 points
6. NZL 212 Paul Snow-Hansen, Jason Saunders 5, 5, 8, (22), 1, 6 = 25 points
7. ESP 9 Onan Barreiros Rodriguez, Aaron Sarmiento Padilla 6, (23), 17, 7, 14, 5 = 49 points
8. NED 11 Lisa Westerhof, Lobke Berkhout 9, 7, 21, 8, 6, (41, DNS) = 51 points
9. NZL 75 Jo Aleh, Polly Powrie 12, 11, 13, 23, 5, (41, BFD) = 64 points
10. AUS 5 Matthew Crawford, Robert Crawford 15, 9, 11, 14, (16), 15 = 64 points
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