South Essex sailors top display at ISAF worlds in Perth
4:17pm Thursday 15th December 2011 in Sport
SAILING: WITH six races under their belt in the Womens 470 dinghy world championships in Australia, South Essex's Katrina Hughes and her helm Penny Clark find themselves still in the running for one of the podium places.
Hughes and Clark’s consistency means the duo are perched in fifth slot in the 48-boat series.
Hughes and Clark are also the top placed Brits, two places ahead of Hannah Mills and West Mersea’s Saskia Clark who beat them to selection for next year’s Olympics that will take place in waters off Weymouth.
And although Westcliff High School for Girls-educated Hughes had her Olympic dreams shattered back in the summer the 22-year-old has the pleasure of beating the chosen British pairing.
Her helmswoman, Penny Clark Tweeted: “Tough day on the water today but managed to hang on in the second race to keep a counter.”
The duo started the series strongly with a first and tenth on day one, a third and ninth on day two and a 25th place and tenth yesterday.
The series allows racers to discard their weakest race result so the Hughes will be looking to stay at the front of the fleet to allow her to discard this relatively poor result.
Reports earlier in the regatta of the sighting of a great white shark are still being taken seriously – although there have been no further sightings.
But fears of an attack have forced regatta organisers, the International Sailing Federation, to relax tight rules on safety boats assisting crewmen falling overboard without resulting in race disqualification.
Today is spare day, without any racing.
The regatta resumes on Friday and Saturday before the medal ceremony on Sunday.
So far the runaway leaders are the Spanish pairing of Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos.