Penultimate day at Optimist Worlds

Pattaya, Thailand (July 19, 2017) – After racing was cancelled yesterday due to light winds and pending storms, the final stage of the Optimist World Championship got underway today with three races completed in moderate winds.

Italy’s Marco Gradoni posted a 7-13-7 to rise to the top of the leaderboard, benefiting from his consistent top five scores from the qualifying stage that roll into his total score. Winning the day was Muhammad Fauzi Bin Kaman Shah of Malaysia with a 2-12-2 and is sitting in second, 13 points behind the Italian. Interestingly, Malaysia’s star sailor already has a bronze from the 2016 event, at which he bumped the Italian into fourth.

Holding onto third place overall is Costa Rica’s Mic Sig Kos Mohr. Still in contention for medals are the USA’s Stephan Baker, China’s Haoze Fang, and Israel’s Roy Levy. Coming up on their heels are four sailors who made significant gains on the penultimate day of racing, including Thailand’s Panwa Boonnak who slipped into tenth overall with an impressive first place finish in the last race of the day.

Currently in the top female position is Spain’s Maria Perello.

American Stephan Baker, the current North American champion, posted a 30-11-3 to climb up to fourth overall. “I feel good going into the final day,” shared Baker. “I had a pretty bad first race today but the other two were much better so I am happy about that and hopefully will get some momentum going into tomorrow.”

The morning began with some tension on shore as sailors prayed for wind. They arrived at the venue to find it drizzling and the wind almost nonexistent. Within an hour or two, however, the breeze began building, starting at 6 knots when the first races launched and climbing to 10 knots for the last set of races.

Swiss coach Antonis Drosopoulos felt conditions had improved. “The wind today was not so extreme. I think it was easier than the first two days,” he said, referring to strong current and unpredictable wind in the regatta’s earliest days.

Racing concludes tomorrow for the 281 sailors from 62 countries with three more races planned.

Event details – Entry list – Results – Facebook

Source: Optimist Worlds 2017