Dragon World Championships, Hornbæk, Denmark - Day 3
by Julian Isherwood 17 Jul 2001 23:07 BST
Phillip still in overall lead; Dane Lars Jensen wins Tuesday’s race
Photos © Birger Vogelius
Dane Lars Jensen was first across the finishing line Tuesday on the third day of the 2001 Dragon World Championships, closely followed by another Dane Mogens Nielsen, but in the overall standings Germany’s Malte Phillip remained in the lead.
Phillipp took first position on Sunday second on Monday and third position today in a continued forceful showing.
“It was difficult out there today. There was a current vortex in the course that you had to be careful of,” said Phillipp. The 77 Dragons raced in 4-6 metres per second north-northwesterly wind and bright sunshine.
Principal Race Office Christian Lerche said Tuesday’s start had been perfect: “They were like pearls in a row and the start went off like clockwork,” he said. An area of current and variable winds had made sailing quite difficult, he said.
“It was complicated - we had breezes from both sides of the course – but it was a much better start today than yesterday,” said UK’s Martin Payne.
After three-and-a-half hours of racing, the first 10 positions in Tuesday’s race were as follows: 1. DEN298 (Lars Jensen); 2. DEN 257 (Mogens Nielsen); 3. GER956 (Malte Phillipp); 4. FIN50 (Henrik Dahlman); 5. GER939 (Thomas Müller); 6. DEN336 (HRH Crown Prince Frederik); 7. DEN66 (Frank Berg); 8. AUS167 (Ian MacDiarmid); 9. GER950 (Harm Müller-Spreer); 10. GBR656 (Martin Payne); 11. IRL157 (John Lavery)
Germany, Denmark and Finland continue to dominate the top of the table, with four Danes, three Germans and Finland’s Henrik Dahlman in the first nine.
”It started off as something of a disaster for us,” said Magnus Berg of the Finnish boat. “We went right – and we shouldn’t have. We decided then to go left and it worked. We are very happy with our fourth place,” said Berg.
“We had a very bad day – we were going fast but in the wrong direction – but we didn’t notice the currents,” said Sweden’s Leif Carlsson.
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