It was ladies day on the race course today at the 2004 Laser Radial Youth World Championship as Britain's Charlotte DOBSON posted the best results of the day in the light 6 to 7 knot sea breeze.
Her first and second places in today's races have moved from 12 overall to 4th after 4 races. In the first race Dobson lead her fleet round the first lap and then slipped to second at the end of the second windward. She recovered her lead from Singapore's Justin TAN on the final upwind leg. In her second race she was part of a group of 7 boats that pulled out lead of 70 metres on the chasing pack. On the second downwind this group had their own private race constantly trading places until once again the final positions were decided on the short windward leg to the finish which was won by 16 year old Carlos TEIXIDOR from Puerto Rico.
In the second fleet Jo Aleh from New Zealand made it a double for the girls when she took the winning gun in her first race. Up the first windward leg she and Jean Baptiste Bernaz FRA took the left hand side of the course with Aleh farthest left. Halfway up the first leg they met with the Chilean Cristobel Grez AHRENS who had played the right side. Both went back to their respective sides and it was Aleh who rounded first in front of Bernaz and they stayed that way for the rest of the race.
In the second race for the blue fleet a Singapore double act of Ri Heng and the sixteen year old Maximillian Soh led the fleet down the first reach. At the end of the second beat Heng still held his lead with Soh third behind Bernaz. At the finish new series leader Nathan Outteridge (AUS) had pulled through to first ahead Heng and Bernaz with Soh dropping to fifth.
The Singapore team were in high spirits at the end of the end having 3 different sailors each scoring a top 5 finish. Full results are available on the event website at the address below.