Singapore National 420 & Byte Champs & Laser Trophy - Day 4
by Dawn Liu 5 Jun 2009 14:43 BST
Light patchy winds early this morning delayed the start time, but fortunately only slightly. Two races were completed in good time, right on schedule for all courses.
In the invitational Byte CII fleet, both gold and silver medals are
successfully sewn up by Supakon Pongwichean and Jittiwa Thanawitwilat
respectively, both from Thailand. Coming in first place for race ten,
the former made it impossible for any other competitors in the fleet to
upset his position. He carried on with a second in race eleven, bringing
him to an impressive ten-point total for his best nine out of eleven
races. As for the latter, her thirteen-point lead over sailor number
three has her safely in second.
The pair of Malaysians in third and fourth will have to battle it out,
however; only a point apart, both with similar discard races, the final
race will determine the outcome as to whether Kahirunneeta or Muhamad
Amirul Shafiq come out ahead.
Australian Matthew Wearn maintains his lead of the Byte standards, now
four points ahead of his only threat, Jordan Ng. Given the size of the
fleet, however, nothing can be certain for these two competitors – they
will have to look to the final race to defend or attack as their
positions dictate.
While third-placed Ernest Tan cannot reasonably hope to improve his
bronze, he may find defending from fourth and fifth not so difficult as
a heated battle between Jerrold Ng and Pamela Goh is likely. Both are
tied on 45 points, three points behind Ernest.
Over on Alpha course, Justin Liu and Sherman Cheng are still trailing
Griselda Khng and Cecilia Low by two points, and it looks like the
regatta is almost over for both sailors: neither have discards worse
than a third. While Justin and Sherman have been more consistent
overall, Griselda and Cecilia’s flashier performance means that if it
comes down to a tie between both boats, the latter will win on
countback.
Meanwhile Benjamas Poonpat and Narisawa Yu-sawat of Thailand had a good
day today, with a third and first putting them back into third ahead of
their team-mates Navee Thamsoontorn and Atiwat Chomtongdee. With three
points separating the two, the final race will decide which pair gets
the podium position.
A similar tussle in the first four of the Laser fleet is going on. Mohd
Romzi and Nik Ashraf Qaedi of Malaysia have pulled away from third- and
fourth-placed Harrithammry Nasution and Colin Cheng and are separated by
two points with both having a chance to win with the last race.
Harrithammry and Colin are tied on twenty-seven points, still within
reach of the regatta leaders, so it will be down to the last race to see
who comes out top of this competitive fleet.
In the Laser Radial fleet, Victoria Chan has ended the day with
seventeen points, five ahead of Khairulnizam of Malaysia. With her
second discard being a fifth, she has pretty much sealed up the regatta
for herself, showing that consistency pays off. Khairulnizam, on the
other hand, still has to watch out for Thailand’s Keerati Bualong, who
after in third place with twenty-five points is in a position to
challenge the former and improve his podium position.
Finally the Byte CIIs continue to be led by Darren Choy, who at eighteen
points is still not quite safe from second-placed Terence Choo. Whatever
the result, Darren will definitely be assured of achieving his goal for
the regatta – to finish within the top two. In third and fourth place
are Germaine Teo, who will need to defend her position against Nathan
Tang, but no matter what will have earned her place to be considered for
the World Championship in August. Further down the line national squad
sailors Chai Xun, Clement Lim and Tan Jen U look well set to join her.
Although this regatta may not be run in the Olympic format, with a medal
race that could determine the final outcome, the point scores for most
of the fleets assure a fierce fight all the way to the end for the
competitors. Fortunately with most of the hard yards run earlier, racing
was able to finish early today, allowing the sailors more rest to gear
up for tomorrow’s deciding race.