Great Britain’s Nick Dempsey claimed his second Men’s RS:X title in Buzios, Brazil whilst Lee Korzits (ISR) came into the final day having already taken the women’s crown.[more]
Dempsey led the fleet coming into the final race and was nine points ahead of Dutchman and London 2012 Olympic Champion Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED). On the water both sailors raced their own race and the Dutchman managed to play the shifting winds to win the race. However Dempsey came through in second which was enough to secure the title for a second time.
“I’m very happy. The race was really difficult because of the wind and I was a little anxious, but everything was good at the end,” said Dempsey.
Another happy chappy was Greek sailor Byron Kokkalanis who came into the final day tied on 41 points with local sailor Ricardo Winicki and Israel’s Nimrod Mashich. It was winner takes all in the final race and Kokkalanis did what he needed to do and came through the Medal Race in third place.
“I had to fight with Bimba and luckily this was my turn. I knew he was going to fight to be third so my goal was to end in front of him. I had a lot of problems in the past year, lost the European Championship on the tiebreaker and the third place in the worlds by one point so today was my day,” said a jubilant Kokkalanis.
In the women’s fleet Korzits had already wrapped up the title to clinch her third in a row. Maayan Davidovich (ISR) had looked odds on favourite to make it an Israeli one two, but Bryony Shaw (GBR) fought hard to ensure this was not the case and a fourth place in the Medal Race compared to Davidovich’s ninth meant she took silver and the Israeli sailor took bronze.
RS:X Worlds Website
Final results:
Top Ten:
Men’s Fleet
1. Nick Dempsey, GBR, 30 pontos perdidos
2. Dorian Van Rijsselberge, NED, 37 pp
3. Byron Kokkalanis, GRE, 49 pp
4. Ricardo Winick, BRA, 53 pp
5. Piotr Myszka, POL, 57 pp
6. Nimrod Maschiah, ISR, 59 pp
7. Shahar Zubari, ISR, 77 pp
8. Ivan Pastor, ESP, 78 pp
9. Pierre Le Coq, FRA, 84 pp
10. Louis Giard, FRA, 87 pp
Women’s Fleet:
1. Lee-El Korsiz, ISR, 44 pontos perdidos
2. Bryony Shaw, GBR, 60 pp
3. Maayan Davidovich, ISR, 67 pp
4. Tuuli Petaja-Siren, FIN, 71 pp
5. Charline Picon, FRA, 77 pp
6. Qiaoshan Weng, CHN, 81 pp
7. Blanca Manchon, ESP, 88 pp
8. Patricia Freitas, BRA98 pp
9. Olha Maslivets, UKR, 100 pp
10. Hayley Chan, HKG, 119 pp
