“Good Day” For Bermuda Optimist Team
Three more races (races 9 – 11) of the Optimist World Championship were sailed today (Jan.5) in the strongest, most consistent breeze (10 – 13kts) since the regatta started.
Makai Joell is still the top Bermudian in the 231 boat fleet despite being over the line early (OCS) in the first race of the day.
Following that he scored a respectable 20th and 14th place to finish the day in 65th overall. Sam Stan is in 84th place with his day’s scores of 18, 52 and 23.
Rounding out the Bermuda team’s standings is Antonio Bailey in 173rd (53,49,32) followed by Ceci Wollmann in 192nd (61,64,70) and Chase Cooper in 199th (60,39,71). Coach Zizi Stanuil reported that the Team had “a good day due to better wind conditions and more aggressive, better starts. The strong tidal current still continues to be a challenge.”
On this 4th day of fleet racing, Thai female Noppakao Poonpat consolidated her position as the leader. She is the only sailor that has finished among the top 15 in all the races. Ryan Lo Jun Han from Singapore had better results than Noppakao on Wednesday (1, 2 and 8) but a couple of poor races on the previous day did not allow him to catch up with Noppakao.
In third place and tied on points with Ryan is Jirawat Jadklay from Thailand. The Asian dominance in the top ten is only interrupted by Bart Lambriex from the Netherlands in 6th place and by Odile van Aanholt from Netherlands Antilles in 10th overall.
Racing continues Thursday and Friday. More information is available on the Bermuda Team blog.
