Olympic Games 1996

FINN - RACE 6 RACE REPORT - 26 July 1996

Today all races were scheduled to start one hour earlier, in an effort to complete the racing before the storms, which have effected racing for several days, hit the race courses.

Race 6 for the Finn class got underway at 12:10, with a building 6 knot wind at 180 degrees and a flat sea, which was in contrast to yesterday's big seas and strong wind. Leading at the first windward mark was Yuriy Tokovoyy (UKR), followed by Sebastien Godefroid (BEL), Paul McKenzie (AUS), Marek Valasek (SVK), Karlo Kuret (CRO), Mateusz Kusznierewicz (POL), Amilios Papathanasiou (GRE), Luca Devoti (ITA) and Ian Ainslie (RSA).

The left hand side of the windward leg course was favoured with Tokovyy (UKR) leading by 2 seconds over Godefroid (BEL) and 4 seconds over McKenzie (AUS), whilst the rest of the fleet followed with 15 seconds separating the next dozen boats.

Surprisingly, Bergmann (BRA), who was the overall leader over 5 races, Craig Monk (NZL) and defending gold medalist Jose Maria van der Ploeg (ESP) were well at the back of the fleet followed, with Monk (NZL) in 27th place out of a 31 boat fleet.

By the second 2nd windward mark Tokovyy (UKR) was still in front. Will Martin (USA) came out through the fleet to take 2nd place in front of Kusznierewicz (POL) who moved from 6th to 3rd place, followed by Godefroid (BEL) and Valasek (SVK). McKenzie (AUS), the winner of Race 5 dropped from 3rd place to 12th.

By the finish Kusznierewicz (POL) had taken the lead by 15 seconds, followed by Martin (USA), Godefroid (BEL), Spitzauer (AUT), Tokovyy (UK) and Valasek (SVK).

During the final downwind leg and beat to the finish many wind shifts affected the placing with Kusnierewicz (POL) continuing to improve from 6th to 3rd to 1st. Martin (USA) also improved through the race from 12th place and finished in 2nd. Surprisingly well back of the fleet were the series leaders after Race 5, Bergmann (BRA) who finished 20th and Loof (SWE) who finished 19th.

This result takes Spitzauer (AUT) into the lead after 6 races, giving him a 2 point margin over Race 6 winner Kusznierewicz (POL) who in turn has a two point margin over Godefroid (BEL), who has moved up from 5th place to 3rd place overall.