Australian Wins the Laser Worlds !!

rock steady

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Congrats to Michael Blackburn and Tom Slingsby.

Go you good things !!

:) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :)

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Breaking News - Blackburn wins 2006 Laser World’s [/FONT]
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]8:15 PM Wed 20 Sep 2006
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In a day of high drama, there were four general recalls before the fleet was successfully gunned away. The race started in 15 knots and ranged down to 12 and up to 18 knots.

The Swede, Rasmus Myrgen led the fleet home from New Zealander Michael Bullot and a Croatian sailor, name unconfirmed, but thought to be Milan Vujasinovic.

Blackburn who went in the last race with a drop of fourth, finished 32 second and that became his discard, while Slingsby who already had a drop of 20th was forced to carry his 17th place today.

The provisional places and points 1. Blackburn Australia 16 points 2. Slingsby Australia 24 points 3. Myrgen Sweden 33 points 4. Lee Canada 39 points 5. Lima Portugal 41 points

:) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :) :D :)
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Yeee Haa.

Tom's a great guy, but he'll have plenty more chances and surely a win or two in his future. Good to see Michael finally get there after several near misses.
 
Thirty five it says on the report of the last day of racing on the ILCA site. But another site says he was born in May 1970. Time to raise the age limit for Masters?
 
This is such an amazing result. Our last World Champion was Glenn Bourke over 10 years ago, and this is the first time we have gone 1,2. Well done!

Here is a bit more info on MB.

35 year old Blackburn has a Phd in Human Movement. He started campaigning in the Laser class in 1994 and has sailed at three Olympics Atlanta, Sydney Athens. Of those his best result was his bronze medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Last year Blackburn amazed the world by sailing across the very dangerous Bass Strait in a Laser.

Dockside, Blackburn commented 'I can't quite believe it. I kind of got used to finishing big regattas anywhere other than 1st. But now, after some 16 years sailing a Laser and 12 years competing internationally, I've finally won the Worlds. Wow!'

His training partner Tom Slingsby, was naturally disappointed, but its a great result for the young sailor, who plainly will be on the world scene for many years to come.

Slingsby started with four bullets in his fleet racing, but the big wind shift on the start of the sixth race in the series cost him the title. Caught at the pin, he rounded the top mark in 40th place and though he fought back to 20th in that race, he was always going to have trouble defending his series lead.

Blackburn explained what happened on the course. ''I matched raced Tom a little before the start(s) but he slipped in front of me. He needed to finish nineth or better. I followed him up the beat to see him round the top about 28th. By the next top mark he was about 22nd and got up to 15th at the finish, not quite enough.

'So I won! Tom second. Australia 1-2, we think the first time ever.'
 
Yay! Go the aussies! Slingsby has a lot of time on his hands but good on Michael Blackburn. It certainly was a topsy turvy interupted regatta.
 
Radial 171107 said:
Yay! Go the aussies! Slingsby has a lot of time on his hands but good on Michael Blackburn. It certainly was a topsy turvy interupted regatta.
Yeah well done. Shame about Qindao though.:D
 
Qingdao? A training regatta at best. ;) Let's wait and see how different everything is when it matters, in two years time.
 

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