Wednesday morning started off slow in Pirita - the sky was cloudy and the wind was just three knots and shifty, causing postponements to the starts. But the ost-wind quickly started collecting speed, and just 50 minutes after the originally scheduled time, the last two qualification races could begin.
In the Laser Standard, Tom Slingsby of Australia maintained his leader position with a seventh place and a first place.
"The day was good - sort of up and down pressure and the wind was 5-12 knots and really shifty. The first race was going well for me but I dropped back a bit and in the second race I was back a bit but still came through. So while up and down, it was a good day overall. I am not too concerned with a strategy at the moment, the first day of the finals everything will be sorting itself out," Slingsby said.
Croatian Tonci Stipanovic, who won both races in his fleet, will start the finals in second overall place, while being the current best European in the Laser Standard fleet, followed by Andreas Geritzer (AUT), 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medallist Paul Goodison (GBR) and fellow Brit Nick Thompson.
The current leaders in the Laser Standard after eight qualification races:
1 AUS 198274 Slingsby Tom 18,0
2 CRO 170520 Stipanovic Tonci 27,0
3 AUT 191383 Geritzer Andreas 31,0
4 GBR 193501 Goodison Paul 32,0
5 GBR 195130 Thompson Nick 35,0
In the Laser Radial, Tina Mihelic again outperformed her competition, winning both races in her fleet and strengthening her leader position once more. Mihelic currently sits on 11 points, leading by 18 points with the British sailor Charlotte Dobson in second place.
"I had some good starts today and really good speed, so I won two first places. I like almost all kinds of wind but my speciality is light wind, and Tallinn Bay has lots of various winds. I just have good speed and I've been sailing really well here. I want to sail just as well in the finals, so we'll see what happens there," Mihelic said.
The current leaders in Laser Radial after eight qualification races:
1 CRO 194934 Mihelic Tina 11,0
2 GBR 197660 Dobson Charlotte 29,0
3 BEL 197514 Van Acker Evi 30,0
4 DEN 196984 Schutt Maiken 38,0
5 FIN 196655 Multala Sari 39,0
The European Championships & Trophy 2010 regatta will continue with the final races, two of which are scheduled for Thursday and two for Friday. In the Laser Standard, the gold fleet will include 50 top sailors, silver and bronze fleets 49 sailors each. In the Laser Radial, the gold and silver fleets will each have 44 sailors.
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