AUSSIE GIRLS INCREASE THEIR LEAD

by Isabelle Musy on 25 Sep 2000 The 470 girls were up first again today on middle harbour course C. The gun fired in a 8 knots north-easterly breeze.

The experienced Germans Birkner and Buelle took an early lead as they rounded mark 1 in front of the Greek and the Spanish.

Overall leaders, Australia's Jenny Armstrong and Belinda Stowell were only 9th at mark 1 but managed to pick up one place in the reach and another 4 in the following run as they rounded mark 3, in 4th behind the Germans, the Greek and the Swedish girls. The Spanish had then dropped to 6th.

The women's fleet have been pretty much working to middle right of the course tacking a lot and fighting for clear air.

It was all very close as the Germans only had then a tiny 7 or 15 seconds lead over the Greeks before 2000 World Champions, Bekatorou and Tsoulfa got taken over in the last beat by the Swedish.

New-Zealand's crew were in the top group as they wouldn't know before the finish that they were OCS for a premature start. Another tough day for the Kiwi girls who came 19th in yesterday's second race after capsizing.

Second and third overall, Ukraine's Atlanta gold medallist and the Japanese, had a not satisfying race in the back of the fleet rounding marks in 14th and 15th to eventually cross the finish line 12th and 13th.

Which means that Australian girls keep their overall lead for the moment. Germany's Birkner and Buelle creep up to 2nd place.


RACE 9 RESULTS: 1. GER, 2. SWE, 3. GRE, 4. AUS, 5. ESP, 6. USA, 7. RUS, 8. ARG, 9. NOR, 10. ISR.

PROVISIONNAL PROGRESSIVE RESULTS AFTER 9 RACES AND ONE DISCARD: 1.AUS 43 PTS, 2. GER 50 PTS, 3. UKR 52 PTS, 4. GRE 53 PTS, 5. USA 54 PTS, 6. ISR 55 PTS, 7. JPN 56 PTS, 8. ESP 60 PTS, 9. SWE 60 PTS, 10. NZL 65 PTS.