Day Three Reshuffles Leaderboard at IFDS Worlds

Shifting winds rearranged the leaderboard on day three of the 2012 International Association for Disabled Sailing (IFDS) World Championships. By the end of racing, the leaders in all three classes changed, setting the stage for a highly competitive homestretch on Charlotte Harbor.

On a hectic day, it was a steady pair of third places by France’s Damien Sequin that prevailed, lifting him past day two 2.4mR leader Theirry Schmitter of The Netherlands, who won the second race of the day to hang on to second. Canada’s Paul Tingley took the first race to stay in third place and sits a point behind Schmitter.

Great Britain’s John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas overtook Ireland’s John Twomey, Anthony Hegarty and Ian Costello Aleksander Wang-Hansen, Marie Solberg and Per Eugen Kristiansen of Norway in the Sonar class on the strength of a pair of second place finishes. Norway was in second place overall and France’s Bruno Jourdren, Eric Flageul and Nicolas Vimont-Vicary leapt from fifth to third despite finishing no higher than third in three races, benefiting from a throwout seventh place on day one.

On a day when neither of the day two leaders won a race in the SKUD class, Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou of the United States and Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell of Great Britain swapped the top two spots after three more races on Thursday. Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch of Australia and Hagar Zehavi and Shimon Ben Yakov of Israel inched closer to the leaders with wins, and the top four are now within six points of each other.

After seven 2.4mR races and six Sonar and SKUD races, sailors are now past the half-way mark. Eleven races are scheduled in total for each class. Racing is set to resume on Friday.