A short day on the beach for the races with a grim forecast which ended in racing being postponed for the day at 12pm finalised the results for the 3rd and final day of the Downunder Pro – Formula Windsurfing Oceanic & Australian Championships. Steve Allen took the event win ahead of Janis Priess from Latvia defending Australian champion Sean O’Brien. [more]
The 2015 SLAKE Downunder Pro – Oceanic and Australian Formula Windsurfing Championships concluded on Saturday with an action packed 7 races taking place over the three-day regatta at picturesque Belmont on Lake Macquarie. The field included 3x World Champion from Australia, Steve Allen (Starboard/Severne), who took the event win by one point ahead of current World #1 from Latvia, Janis Priess (Gaastra/Gaastra) with defending Australian & Oceanic title champion Sean O’Brien (Starboard/Severne) in 3rd.
The final day of competition produced no valid races keeping Allen just 1 point ahead of Priess after 7 races over the 3 day event. Allen made his move on Thursday’s racing after dropping back down the fleet after some gear failure on the 1st day, by posting 2 seconds and 2 firsts for the day as he battled with Latvian Janis Priess (Gaastra/Gaastra) who posted 2 firsts and 2 seconds giving Allen the edge by 1 point overall. Priess said about the event:
“We had a beautiful 2 days of racing and I’m really happy that I managed to win 3 of the 7 races in such difficult conditions and with a strong fleet. I want to say thank you to the organisers and sponsors for such great prizes, especially Brett Morris for his hospitality and the race officers for a great job on the water. For me it was a great start for the coming new season and I really hope I can make it back next year.”
Sean O’Brien (Starboard/Severne) fought his way back on to the podium beating Danish Christian Justesen (Starboard/Neilpryde) after a countback when both sailors finished the event on equal points. O’Brien finished the final race in 3rd with Justesen 4th which solidified the tie-break split.
Brett Morris (Starboard/Severne) won the the Grand Masters division finishing in 5th position overall ahead of Tibor Ferenczy (Starboard/Severne) and Rick Murray (JP/North) in 8th overall. Bruce Healey (Starboard/Severne) took out the Free-Formula division winning 5 out of the 7 races so far over the 7 races of the event.
The event finished with a prizegiving ceremony on the foreshore of the lake with the top 3 overall event winners taking home the coveted prizes of new masts donated by the title sponsor. Windsurf’N’Snow store in Sydney donated a large bulk of exciting prizes for the winners of the Grand Masters and Free Formula division as well to event organiser Adam Craven to round up the event.
