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28 July 2005, 10:25 am

VON DER BANK Remains Top

Contender World Championship 2005

Travemünder, Germany

There was plenty of drama yesterday as Marcus HAMILTON (AUS) took the lead at the Contender World Championship taking place as part of the ISAF Grade 3 Travemünder Woche in Germany. However a 20% scoring penalty applied late last night sees him fall back to seventh overall and day one leader Jan VON DER BANK (GER) reclaim the top spot.

The Contenders were the first boats out and the last ones in yesterday as the 117 strong fleet completed a further two races.

VON DER BANK was a surprise leader after day one and took 'his personal time off' in the first race yesterday scoring a DNF. 'I was hit by a strong wind shift on the wrong side,' explained the 38 year old, 'and when I found myself in the upper forties I thought it might be best to simply give up.'

Championship favourite HAMILTON seemingly took his chance to battle to a finish of 15. He then scored a bullet in race five to take the lead of the Championship on 19 points. However an incident in race four with John BROWETT (GBR), meant HAMILTON incurred a 20% Scoring Penalty under rule 44.3 of the ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing, which bumped his score in race four up to 38 and saw him tumble down the leaderboard.

VON DER BANK's closest challenger is now Giovanni BONZIO (ITA), who is tied on points with the German after a fourth and sixth place yesterday. Defending World Champion Andrea BONEZZI (ITA) lies third a further four points back. In a very tightly fought series so far the top nine are separated by only nine points meaning there is still plenty of excitement to come in Travemünder.

Top Ten After Five Races

Pos	Nation	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Pts
1	GER	Jan VON DER BANK	1	5	4	(DNF)	12	22
2	ITA	Giovanni BONZIO	10	2	(13)	4	6	22
3	ITA	Andrea BONEZZI	(16)	8	1	10	7	26
4	GBR	Stuart JONES	(20)	6	10	7	3	26
5	GBR	Graham SCOTT	3	11	7	6	(14)	27
6	NED	Rene HEYNEN	4	7	(27)	14	4	29
7	AUS	Marcus HAMILTON	27	1	2	(38/SCP)	1	31
8	GBR	Neil WILSON	(29)	3	9	9	10	31
9	GBR	Gary LANGDOWN	7	(21)	11	8	5	31
10	GBR	Tim HOLDEN	5	(14)	5	12	11	33

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