Day Six

The scoreboard shows a knife-edge situation. Mathematically seven sailors from seven countries and four continents can still win the championship. Defending champion Filip MATIKA (CRO), who is still just twelve years old, seems to have hit the front at the right time but his lead over 2002 South American champion Sebastian PERIRUSA (ARG) is just five points. In third place at present is Jason SPANOMANOLIS (GRE) who had remained unnoticed until the second discard but now reveals ten races in single figures. Bermuda's Jesse KIRKLAND in fourth has good (12 + 14) discards and may go all out for gold.

There will not be a female winner this year. Hannah MILLS is still nursing her fear of a third OCS and sailed conservatively yesterday (10-13-7) but this was enough to put her 47 points ahead of her closest rival for the Girls' medal Alessandra FERLICH who was on the wrong side of a nasty windshift in the last race of the day.

The Miami Herald Trophy for the combined scores of the four best sailors seems destined for Great Britain through the efforts of Hannah and the three Royal Lymington sailors, long-term leader Greg CAREY, 10th placed Richard MASON and Robbie CLARIDGE. If so it will reward a remarkable resurgence over the past few years of one of
IODA's founder members.


Top Ten After 13 Races

Pos	Nation	Crew	Points
1	CRO	MATIKA Filip	36
2	ARG	PERI BRUSA Sebastian	41
3	GRE	SPANOMANOLIS Jason	51
4	BER	KIRKLAND Jesse	53
5	GBR	CAREY Greg	63
6	POL	JANUSZEWSKI Tomasz	64
7	JPN	KAWAI Ryutaro	65
8	GBR	MILLS Hannah	71
9	ESP	BLANCO Joaquin	87
10	GBR	MASON Richard	92