Philipp Buhl builds lead at Laser Worlds

Sandringham, Australia (February 15, 2020) – Two Olympic medallists and the sailor who holds second place overall made it tough for themselves today in very testing conditions at the 2020 Laser Standard Men’s World Championship.

Double Olympic champion Robert Scheidt (BRA), London 2012 silver medallist Pavlos Kontides (CYP), and Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Bernaz were all black-flagged after the race committee had been forced into numerous general recalls.

With all sailors able to drop their worst race from their overall score, it hasn’t yet ruined their regatta. But they know they can’t afford another bad one tomorrow on the final day.

It was a cold, wet and windy day with the pressure slowly building from 18 knots to around 25 knots by the end of the afternoon, blowing from the south. No sailing was possible yesterday, so three races were sailed today, making it physically and mentally demanding for the sailors.

One man who appeared unfazed by the weather and the pressure was competition leader Philipp Buhl (GER) who had scores of 2,3 and 5 to go with his four race wins from previous days. Buhl has extended his lead over Bernaz to four points, but the Frenchman now has the specter of the 42 point black flag to carry into the final day. He knows that one bad race will drop him out of medal contention.

“I was disappointed when I saw that I had been black-flagged,” he said. “I thought I was OK, and we will ask (the race committee to review the tapes). I know which race will be my drop now. I just had to get two good results in the other races and I did that.”

Buhl echoed the comments of other sailors, who said that it had been a very tiring day. “It was extremely exhausting,” he said of the three race program. “But I am pretty happy with how things went.”

Australian Matt Wearn has moved into third place after another solid performance. Today he was 4th, 8th and 2nd to be 11 points behind the Frenchman but a clear 10 points ahead of fourth-placed Briton Elliott Hanson, who would appear to have done enough to secure his first Olympic team spot.

“It was hard work,” Wearn said of the day’s sailing, “Made harder when you miss the shift off the start in the first two races. I had to work harder than I’d like to get back into it.”

This had been an extremely close championship during qualifying, but the gaps are now starting to appear during the gold fleet stage. Three more races are scheduled for tomorrow’s final day, with conditions likely to be similar to today.

Day Five Results (Top 10 of 124; 9 races, 1 discard)

Event details – Results – Facebook

Source: Roger McMillan/Laser 2020

In total, 124 boats from 43 countries will compete February 11 to 16 in which the field will be split into three fleets for six qualifying races before another six races, weather permitting, of Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets.

Olympic Trials: The Worlds will finalize selection for the USA Tokyo 2020 Team in the Men’s One Person Dinghy event. Charlie Buckingham, who has an 18 point lead in selection standings over Chris Barnard, slid a position to 31st overall while Barnard moved up to 24th. However, Buckingham remains in the lead for selection.