It was ladies day on the race course yesterday at the 2004 Laser Radial Youth World Championship as Britain’s Charlotte Dobson posted the best results of the day in the light 6-7 knot sea breeze. Her first and second place in yesterday’s races have moved from 12th overall to 4th after four races.

In the first race Dobson led her fleet round the first lap and then slipped to second at the end of the second windward leg. She recovered her lead from Singapore’s Justin Tan on the final upwind leg. In her second race she was part of a group of seven boats that pulled out lead of 70m on the chasing pack. On the second downwind this group had their own private race constantly trading places until once again the final positions were decided on the short windward leg to the finish which was won by 16 year old Carlos Teixidor from Puerto Rico.

In the second fleet Jo Aleh from New Zealand made it a double for the girls when she took the winning gun in her first race. Up the first windward leg she and Jean Baptiste Bernaz FRA took the left-hand side of the course with Aleh farthest left. Halfway up the first leg they met with the Chilean Cristobel Grez Ahrens who had played the right side. Both went back to their respective sides and it was Aleh who rounded first in front of Bernaz and they stayed that way for the rest of the race.

In the second race for the blue fleet a Singapore double act of Ri Heng and the 16-year-old Maximillian Soh led the fleet down the first reach. At the end of the second beat Heng still held his lead with Soh third behind Bernaz. At the finish new series leader Nathan Outteridge AUS had pulled through to first ahead Heng and Bernaz with Soh dropping to fifth.

The Singapore team were in high spirits at the end of the end having three different sailors each scoring a top five finish.

Results (without discard)

1 AUS 171117 OUTTERIDGE Nathan 11.0pts

2 FRA 128681 FREI Mathieu 16.0 pts

3 FRA 175399 BERNAZ Jean Baptiste 16.0 pts

4 GBR 176706 DOBSON Charlotte 19.0 pts

5 ARG 179356 CARRANZA SAROLI Cecilia 22.0 pts

6 PUR 175951 TEIXIDOR Carlos, U17 24.0 pts

7 BRA 157790 JAKOBSSON Daniel 25.0 pts

8 IRL 177498 BYRNE Conor 26.0 pts

9 FRA 178129 GEFFRAY Germain 26.0 pts

10 CHI 164141 GREZ AHRENS Cristobal 27.0 pts

11 GBR 174416 STOTHERT Alex John 30.0 pts

12 NZL 177775 ALEH Jo 32.0 pts

13 CRO 177575 MIHELIC Daniel 32.0 pts

14 SIN 171086 TAN Justin Weizheng 36.0 pts

15 GBR 176707 DAVIDSON Campbell 40.0 pts