Velocitek Contender Worlds at Kingston, Canada - Overall
by Duncan Ellis 26 Aug 2008 22:15 BST
19-23 August 2008
Marcus Hamilton (AUS) wins Contender Worlds
The last day of the 2008 Velocitek Contender Worlds and the wind was up and the bay was whipped with whitecaps. By the time competitors hit the racecourse, the rollers were big (boats would disappear beneath the six foot swell), but the wind was diminishing steadily, so by the third and last race it was marginal trapezing.
Marco, Marcus and Chris Sutherland each scored a bullet, and with nine races, two drops were allowed. Demonstrating he is both an ace in light and heavy air, congratulations go to Marcus Hamilton from Australia who won the 2008 Velocitek Contender World Championships.
Marcus acknowledged it was not an easy regatta to win, with Marco Versari and Soren breathing down his neck. Apparently the cure for stress relief is finding a lot of jagerbombs post-racing.
Marcus' fellow Aussie, Chris Sutherland, was the recipient of the Master's trophy, Cristoph Engel won the Youth, and Stephanie Mah squeaked by Vanessa to win the Women's trophy.
I would like to extend a huge thank you from the North American Contender fleet to all of the competitors who came to Kingston and made this such a great event. Travelling here was not an easy feat, so we really appreciated the time and expense you incurred to take part.
Also, none of this would have happened without the great help we got from CORK. Thanks to their experience with world class regattas, we didn't have to worry about any of the racing logistics, there were no issues with the courses that were set, there were lots of crash boats out keeping an eye on everyone, and they've certainly inspired more of us to volunteer to run these kinds of events.
Overall Results: (top ten)
1st AUS2323, HAMILTON, MARCUS (Melbourne,BRYC)
2nd ITA99, VERSARI, MARCO (Milano,CNB)
3rd DEN44, ANDREASEN, SOREN (Hellerup,HS)
4th AUS2443, SUTHERLAND, CHRIS (WA Swanbourne,RFBYC)
5th GER53, BRANDT, OLIVER (Hamburt,HSC)
6th GER531, HARPPRECHT, JOACHIM (Molfsee,TSS)
7th USA2396, BIXBY, ETHAN (FL St Petersburg)
8th GER551, HOMEIER, CHRISTOPH (Kiel,TSVS)
9th GER488, BILLERBECK, MAX (WSVK)
10th CAN2398, SMITH, NEIL ON (North York,OHCC)