Audi Laser Eurocup - Lake Como Overall

TENSE FINAL DAY RACING

In a light breeze, one hudred and thirteen boats headed out onto Lake Como to settle the finalé of the Audi Laser Euro Cup Tour.

There were new faces on the podium in the Laser 4000 fleet, with Mark Dicker & Alistair Barker taking the top honours, beating Preferred IT's Douglas Baker & Hilary Sutton by one point. Dicker & Barker, student who are still under 20 years old, showed what can be done with a consistent last day, and alone among the leaders kept all their gold fleet results in the top five. Preferred IT won the big prize though, with their second place narrowly holding off Audi's Ricky Tagg & Vanda Zadarozny for the Audi Laser Euro Cup title.

Monarch Team Unlimited appeared to crumble under the pressure of the no discard gold fleet final - scoring 29 points in the 3 races to drop them from 1st to 6th. After having won the first two Euro Cup regattas they are bound to be reflecting on how it could all have been different. 4 points less in Lake Como, and they would have beaten Adobe for 4th place and won the Audi Laser Euro Cup overall - but in a fleet this tight, 4 points is a large margin.

Results went to form in the Laser 5000 and Laser.eps fleets. Audi' s Andy White won all three Euro Cup events to confirm his title, with the same unbeaten score being claimed by Aquatonic in the Laser 5000 fleet.

Holt's Robbie Wells & Ali Hall were the story of the regatta in the Laser 5000 fleet, where they showed some remarkably consistent racing, only losing out on the final day to Aquatonic. A windward mark incident with 3rd placed Proctor put paid to their assault on Aquatonic's dominance, and they dropped back in the final two races, narrowly holding 2nd place from Proctor's Mark Rushall & Jonnie Meers. Any disagreement about the drama at the windward mark was swiftly put behind the two boats, as Mark & Robbie will be sailing on the same boat next week in the final Ultra 30 regatta.

Phillippe Peron mounted a major challenge to Andy White in the Laser.eps fleet, and was leading by a point going in to the last day. His title was soon sliding out of his grip though, as he consistently fell out of the top three downwind, and Andy looked confident all day.

Next year, the Audi Laser Euro Cup will continue with the same great formula, opening in France in May - look out for web coverage nearer the time. In the meantime, the Quattro Cup finalé takes place in Draycote in October.

More news and results at www.lasersailing.com/audi-laser-racing