You cannot fault the committment of the organisers for trying to ensure a perfect start to the championship; but sometimes the wind god just cannot play by the rules !
For once the wind did not come in as expected and the Race Director, Antonio Lamadrid, had no choice but to postpone the start of racing. When the wind kicked in it was not the normal steady build up – the first race had to be abandoned and racers given the opportunity to come to shore and change down their sails.
The pattern for the rest of the day was established – unstable and gusty conditions guaranteed challenging racing for all. Strong winds in race one gave way to light winds in race two. A broken boom in race 1 for Biel (BRA50) and sail head problem for Pont (POL126) in race 2, were further illustrations of the frustrations that many competitors felt at the end of this first day.
Of course there are always winners and losers, and reigning world champion Steve Allen (AUS0) will be be more than satisfied with his performance today – he is determined to retain his title in 2010! Consistant results in a wide range of conditions determine the outcome of championships – you can be sure that Paulo (BRA3333), Ross (GBR83), Gonzalo (ARG3) to name but 3 of the chasing pack will give Steve a stern test over the next days of the competition.
Equally, in the womens fleet, 2009 champion Marta Hlavaty (POL111) will be the woman to beat – 2 good races, in such wide ranging conditions, give her a coommanding lead going into day 2.
