The wind is gradually increasing day by day as the the Laser Radial World Championship moves into its final stages in Fortaleza, Brazil.

The competition is also increasing now the fleets are split into gold and silver. Getting to the first mark in first position is only the first step in getting a good finishing place as Jo Aleh from New Zealand found out in the first women’s race of the day.

In open sea conditions and a 15 knot wind the positions at the first mark were reversed by the end of the race. Aleh dropped to 9th at the finish whilst Sarah Blanck AUS worked her way through to win from Solenne Brain FRA and Anna Tuncliffe USA.

In the second race of the day there were new faces at the front. Gintare Volungeviciute from Lithuania made up for a poor first race by leading Evi Van Acker BEL and Lisa Westerhof NED at the first mark. Van Acker, held her position to the finish whilst others around swapped places in the exciting racing.

Defending champion, Krystal Weir AUS, had her best day of the championship. She made places on the reaches to score a win which, added to her 4th in the previous race, has fast tracked her up the leader board from 16th to 5th overall. She said: “The stronger winds and waves were good for me. It was just like Brisbane (the venue where she won her title).” Only four other sailors scored less than 20 points across the first two of six ‘finals’ races. Two of these were the USA pair, Paige Riley and Anna Tunicliffe. Riley retains her overall lead with two eigth places and Tunicliffe moves from sixth to second overall after scoring a third and ninth for the second best total score of the day.

In the men’s fleet Brad Funk USA is also in the express elevator up the leader board moving from seventh to second overall after matching the new leader Eduardo de Magalhaes Couto BRA each scoring a second and third place. Blair Mclay NZL and Martin Jenkins ARG led the seventh and eigth races from start to finish. Couto and Funk were up with the leaders in the first race of the day but both had to do a lot more to get through the fleet in the second race.

Series leader for the last two days, Igor Lisovenko RUS, scored double figure results in both of his races and then found himself on the wrong end of a protest which resulted in his disqualification from the first race of the day which drops him to third overall.

Results (after 8 races with one discard)

Women, Gold

1 Paige Railey USA, 35,0 pts

2 Anna Tunnicliffe USA, 46,0 pts

3 Petra Niemann GER, 47,0 pts

4 Sarah Blanck AUS, 48,0 pts

5 Krystal Weir AUS, 53,0 pts

6 Sophie de Turckheim FRA, 58,0 pts

7 Hanne Jansch GER, 63,0 pts

8 Gintare Volungeviciute LTU, 64,0 pts

9 Tania Elias Calles MEX, 67,0 pts

10 Laura Baldwin GBR, 71,0 pts

Mens, Gold

1 Eduardo C. de Magalhães Couto BRA, 25,0 pts

2 Brad Funk USA, 36,0 pts

3 Igor Lisovenko RUS, 38,0 pts

4 Tiago Côrtes Rodrigues BRA, 41,0 pts

5 Andreas Reinisch Perdicaris BRA, 42,0 pts

6 Blair Mclay NZL, 44,0 pts

7 Ben Paton GBR, 51,0 pts

8 Timofey Zhbankov RUS, 51,0 pts

9 Daniel Jakobsson BRA, 51,0 pts

10 Martin Jenkins ARG, 52,0 pts