Thunder storms and lightning played havoc again at the Radial World Championship in Melbourne and only one race was completed for the fleets.
A series of rolling thunderstorms, accompanied by lightning, forced the competitors back to the Sandringham YC before the course became dangerous.
After a long wait onshore the AP flag came down at 5pm and the sailors rushed to their boats. Now the problem was not lack of wind, but a strong southerly had filled in behind the thunderstorms and was blowing a solid 22 knots.
The racing was wild and furious, with big waves building and the wind staying above 20 knots. As they came ashore, the sailors looked cold and very tired.
The Yellow Fleet race was won by Ireland’s Annaliese Murphy, in her element in the conditions – “The waves were awesome, everyone was having so much fun downwind. Upwind, not so much,” she laughed. Pernelle Michon of France was second.
Holland’s Marit Bouwmeester won the Blue fleet, ahead of defending World Champion Anne-Marie Rindom of Denmark, who moves to the top of the leaderboard, one point ahead of Bouwmeester, with overnight leader, the Swiss Maud Jayet finishing well in sixth to take third overall.
Britain’s Alison Young posted her best result to date, a fourth and is 13th overall.
Young: “Tricky day for the race officers today with thunderstorms going on but we got one race away. We had a fresh breeze, I made some mistakes, but on the whole it was good. Hopefully we get a bit more racing in the next few days.”
Others doing better in the strong wind conditions were: Maxime Jonker of Holland finishing in third (50th overall), Charlotte Rose of the USA finishing fourth (31 overall) and Germany’s Hannah Anderssohn with a fifth (55 overall).
Qualifying will continue Wednesday, with at least one race needed to complete the qualifying series. The first discard comes into effect after four races.
In the men’s championship Daniil Krutskikh of Russia continues to dominate, although he finished second behind Zac Littlewood of Australia.
Finishing in third was Brazil’s Gustavo Correa Nascimeno, and also enjoying the stronger conditions, Ethan McAullay of Australia in fourth.
Krutskikh now has a 15 point lead from Michael Compton (14) of Australia, third is Slovenian Nik Pletikos (10) with fourth Jordan Makin (11) of Australia.
Radial women – World Championship after 3rd flight races (102 entries)
1st DEN Anne-Marie RINDOM 1 3 2 – – 6 pts
2nd NED Marit BOUWMEESTER 3 3 1 – – 7 pts
3rd SUI Maud JAYET 2 1 6 – – 9 pts
4th BEL Emma PLASSCHAERT 9 2 3 – – 14 pts
5th JPN Manami DOI 6 4 7 – – 17 pts
6th CAN Sarah DOUGLAS 5 8 8 – – 21 pts
7th GRE Vasileia KARACHALIOU 2 6 14 – – 22 pts
8th NOR Line FLEM HØST 19 2 5 – – 26 pts
9th POL Agata BARWINSKA 12 7 7 – – 26 pts
10th FRA Pernelle MICHON 13 12 2 – – 27 pts
11th FRA Marie BOLOU 4 8 15 – – 27 pts
12th FRA Louise CERVERA 8 10 12 – – 30 pts
13th GBR Alison YOUNG 21 6 4 – – 31 pts
14th AUS Mara STRANSKY 5 22 8 – – 35 pts
15th POL Magdalena KWASNA 8 17 10 – – 35 pts
16th GER Svenja WEGER 3 26 10 – – 39 pts
17th NED Daphne VAN DER VAART 11 21 9 – – 41 pts
18th USA Erika REINEKE 17 13 13 – – 43 pts
19th GER Pia KUHLMANN 14 16 14 – – 44 pts
20th FIN Tuula TENKANEN 37 1 9 – – 47 pts
Radial men – World Championship after race 3 (66 entries)
1st RUS Daniil KRUTSKIKH 1 1 2 – – 4 pts
2nd AUS Michael COMPTON 2 3 14 – – 19 pts
3rd SLO Nik PLETIKOS 8 9 10 – – 27 pts
4th AUS Jordan MAKIN 3 15 11 – – 29 pts
5th AUS Zac LITTLEWOOD 25 5 1 – – 31 pts
6th AUS Brody RILEY 18 8 5 – – 31 pts
7th AUS Rhett GOWANS 9 12 15 – – 36 pts
8th AUS Daniel COSTANDI 14 6 19 – – 39 pts
9th CRO Mario NOVAK 23 7 9 – – 39 pts
10th BRA Gustavo CORREA NASCIMENTO 6 35 3 – – 44 pts
