TMN Snipe World Championship at Leixões - Day 3

by Alexandra Trindade 14 Sep 2007 07:51 BST

Kenji Abe & Hiroshi Yamachica reaffirm the Japanese dominance

The fog and the barely blowing wind were the day's special for the TMN Snipe World Championship, taking place until Saturday, at Leixões. The Japanese crew Kenji Abe/Hiroshi Yamachica won the only race of the day and took the lead in the overall provisional results. The Japanese fleet keeps putting on a show with three crews clinging to the top 5. Gonçalo Guerra/Tiago Guerra is the best qualifying Portuguese crew, ranking 14th.

The double hand crew Kenji Abe/Hiroshi Yamachica is completely able to cope with the hard sailing conditions felt at Leixões. The sailors clearly won race right from the beginning, taking the lead in the TMN Snipe World Championship.

Abe, explains how the race went: "I had a very good start and I chose the right tactical option. I kept focused on the race and that helped achieving the victory", so states the Japanese helmsman.

Kenji Abe preferes not to go into foretelling: "Luck hás been on my side but I'm not sure I'll be able to win. We've only challenged two races so far and there is still a lot of sailing to be done for the championship", he gathers.

Martinho Fortunato/Tiago Marcelino were the day's best ranking Portuguese crew, finishing the race in 9th. The race outcome pulled them up to 15th in the provisional overall: "It was a difficult race due to the fog we got. We even lost sight of the buoys during one of the race legs", comments Fortunato. However the result was positive: "We sailed a conservative race and it worked out. We were expecting average to strong wind and the weather we´re getting does not favour us. We were aiming somewhat higher but we're improving as the championship develops", confesses Marcelino.

Overall, Gonçalo Guerra/Tiago Guerra are the highest ranking national crew, placed in 14th.

The current World Champion, the North-American Augie Diaz, crewing with Mark Ivey, ranks 11th in the overall provisional results.

The TMN Snipe World Championship is organised by the Clube de Vela Atlântico and enjoys the support of the Câmara Municipal de Matosinhos, TMN, IDP (Instituto do Desporto de Portugal), Secretaria de Estado da Juventude e do Desporto, Administração dos Portos de Leixões e Douro (APDL), e Federação Portuguesa de Vela.

Results after Day 3:

1 Kenji Abe/Hiroshi Yamachica – Japan
2 Tomas Hornos/Enrique Quintero – United States Of America
3 Pablo Defazio/Eduardo Medici - Uruguay
4 Bahuru Kodama/Toshihiko Tanaka – Japan
5 Sigeru Matsuzaki/Hiroyuri Sigiura – Japan
6 Paco Sanchez/Marina Sanchez – Spain
7 Peter Commette/Sheehan Commette – United States Of America
8 Bart Bomans/Jill Ponet – Belgium
9 Emmanuel Hens/Enrico Michel - Belgium
10 Victor Demaison/Alexandre Tinoco – Brazil