Laser Standard Men's World Championship at Split, Croatia - Day 1

Pavlos Kontides on day 1 of the Laser Standard Men's World Championship © ILCA

At the opening press conference, in Split, Croatia, the 2016 Olympic Gold and Silver medal winners predicted a tough championship with any one of 30 sailors capable of scoring a top five place in the 147 strong fleet from 52 countries. Australian Tom Burton and local sailor Tonci Stipanovic of Croatia proved the reasons for their predictions in the first of two races today when they scored an 18th and 17th position in their respective fleets.

The total championship entry list is divided daily into 3 equal sized fleets, all racing two races a day in a 3 day qualifying series. After the qualifying series, all sailors will be divided into gold, silver and bronze fleets with no further fleet changes for the remaining 6 races over the final 3 days.

After a brief wait on shore for the light south-easterly gradient wind to build, the yellow and blue fleets got away first time in 5 to 9 knots while the third to start red fleet required a general recall. In all races sailors in each fleet had to choose between covering the right hand side of the course for a potential sea breeze from the south west or taking the left hand side in less current.

Into the afternoon the fight between the gradient wind and sea breeze increased causing shifts of up to 30 degrees and greater wind strength fluctuations. The challenging conditions turned the second races of the blue and red fleets inside out, causing the race committee to abandon both these fleet races and re-locate the race course further south as the light sea breeze failed to take hold and the gradient returned.

It was a day of frustration and nerves for both the sailors and the race committee, yet the results show a remarkable consistency in the in the top 16. For the 2012 Olympic silver medallist Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus, it was perfect consistency of two wins ahead of France's Jean-Baptiste Bernaz, the 2016 World Champion runner up, who scored two second places on the day. In third to fifth overall, three sailors finished the day with 5 points each.

www.laserinternational.org

Top 10 after day 1 (provisional):

1. Pavlos Kontides, Cyprus, 2 points
2. Jean-Baptiste Bernaz, France, 4 points
3. Sam Meech, New Zealand, 5 points
4. Giovanni Coccoluto, Italy, 5 points
5. Lorenzo Brando Chiavarini, Great Britain, 5 points
6. Sergey Komissarov, Russia, 7 points
7. Nick Thompson, Great Britain, 8 points
8. Philipp Buhl, Germany 11 points
9. Mitchell Kennedy, Australia, 11 points
10. Elliot Hanson, Great Britain, 12 points
(Matt Wearn, Duko Bos, Michael Beckett also at 12 points)

Full results after day 1 [PDF]

Update from Yachting New Zealand

Sam Meech made a strong start to the Laser world championships in Split overnight, winning one of his two races to sit in third overall.

Extremely shifty conditions greeted the 147 competitors in Croatia, meaning big gains and losses could be made, so Meech was happy to emerge from the first day in a healthy position with a win and a fourth in his two races.

He sits on five points overall, behind Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus and France's Jean-Baptiste Bernaz, with most of the expected contenders all in and around the top 20.

"It was a good first day for me," said Meech, who has struggled in the opening stages of regattas this year before recovering strongly. "It was really shifty and puffy. We had between five and 12 knots of wind and it was coming from all directions.

"I had pretty good starts in both races so I was lucky to come away with two good results but it wasn't easy, that's for sure. The forecast looks better for tomorrow and a little bit more breeze would really make life a lot easier."

Tom Saunders was the next best of the other Kiwis, notching a 15th and a third to sit in 18th overall, while George Gautrey (18th and 28th) was 66th and Andrew McKenzie (46th and fifth) was 74th.

McKenzie will expect to be a lot higher in the standings and he should be able to drop the 46th as one of his discards but it puts pressure on him for the rest of qualifying and he can't afford to make too many more mistakes.

Saunders was also happy to emerge from day one largely unscathed.

"It was a really long day on the water in tricky conditions," he said. "I got caught in race one but I was happy to end the day on a good note [with a third]. It's still early days.

"Qualifying is all about getting through unscathed and then the regatta really starts in gold fleet. It could have been better but could have been a lot worse today."