Australian Sailing Team member Mara Stransky has held on to a top 15 position after finishing with two 5th places on the fourth day of the Laser Women’s Radial World Championships at Sandringham Yacht Club.

Despite capsizing three times, twice in her second of three races, Olympic aspirant Stransky still managed to show the necessary grit to put herself in a solid position and recover well in her third race.

Stransky is now only 5 points outside the top 10 going into Gold Fleet racing tomorrow.

“Three races was tough, it was a lot. I spent a lot of time upside down too but came away with two 5s and a 14 so still a pretty good day,” Stransky said. “I guess I’m just going to go into tomorrow and be more consistent. The fleet is going to be tougher and I'll deal with whatever we get tomorrow.”

Competitors were finally able to make the most of good conditions with blue sky and south, south westerlies above 20 knots all day.
Faced with big waves on Port Phillip and three back-to-back races, Australian Zoe Thompson described the conditions today as “relentless”.

Despite the challenging conditions she was upbeat with a 14th, 15th & 19th after her disappointing performance and capsizing in the only race on Day 3.

“There’s a full six races left so it’s going to be a pretty big day tomorrow. I am pretty sure there’s going to be a bit of wind, so I’ll head home for some rest and look to really send it tomorrow.”

Australian Sailing Squad member Elyse Ainsworth continued her climb up the standings, sailing well today to move up another four spots to 34th overall going into finals.

“I’m on a good upward trend in the areas I’m working on so I’m going to keep focusing on those, including just getting clean starts and keeping it simple,” she said.

The women’s fleet will be divided into Gold and Silver Fleets tomorrow.

Unfortunately, despite some incredible early results 15-year-old livewire Mina Ferguson will only just miss out on tomorrow’s Gold Fleet by just one place in her first ever open age regatta.

Brody Riley blitzed the men’s fleet today and moved up to 4th overall after placing 3rd in both his races, putting him well within striking distance of fellow Aussie Michael Compton who sits in third overall ahead of Gold Fleet tomorrow.

Compton slipped back one spot following two disappointing finishes behind the dominant performances of both Riley and Zac Littlewood.
Racing has been moved forward for day five, with 10 to 15 knots in the morning and increasing in the afternoon.

For more information on the 2020 ILCA Laser Radial Women's World Championship and full results visit: https://sailing.laserinternational.org/public/site/event-site/110

Day Four Results:

Laser Radial Women’s (105 entries) Australian Sailing Team (AST), Australian Sailing Squad (ASS) entries:

15th: Mara Stransky (AST) 5, (22), 8, 5, 14, 5 – 37 pts


34th: Elyse Ainsworth (ASS) (32), 11, 20, 8, 24, 15 – 78 pts

Other Australians in the Top Forty:

27th: Zoe Thomson 10, 14, (28), 14, 15, 19 – 72 pts

Laser Radial Men’s (66 entries) Australians in the Top Ten:

3rd: Michael Compton 2, 3, (14), 5, 4 – 14 pts


4th: Brody Riley (18), 8, 5, 3, 3– 19 pts


5th: Frazer Brew (RET), 11, 6, 6, 5 – 28 pts 

6th: Stefan Elliott-Shircore 7, (30), 7, 7, 10 – 31 pts 


7th: Zac Littlewood 25, 5, 1, (DSQ), 1 – 32 pts
9th: Ethan McAullay 19, (22), 4, 4, 13 – 40 pts

Photos:

Jon West Photography