The waiting is over

The 2007 Finn World Championships - and the first opportunity to qualify for the 2008 Olympic regatta - started in near perfect conditions in Cascais, Portugal with race wins for Emilios Papathanasiou (GRE), Chris Cook (CAN) and Ed Wright (GBR).

Racing today was scheduled to start on course three at 13.00, however the earlier promising wind had dropped to almost nothing by the start time. Racing finally got underway at 14.00 as the offshore breeze gradually built to reach 25 knots by the times the Finns headed for home some four hours later. The racing was sailed in two fleets, yellow and blue, started 10 minutes apart. The first off, the yellow fleet, sailed an outer trapezoid course, while the blue fleet sailed an inner trapezoid course.

Yellow fleet

The first race for the yellow fleet started in 7-10 knots of wind. Emilios Papathanasiou (GRE) couldn't have hoped for a better start to his 2007 Finn World Championship campaign. In the first race he rounded the first mark in seventh place and gradually worked his way up the fleet to the front and then led round the final offwind legs to the finish. In the second race he led from start to finish, extending his lead to end the day with a perfect score and lead the championship with 2 points.

The early leader in race one, Liiv Harles (EST) was followed by Alexander Mumyga (BUL) and Ricardo Cordovani (ITA). Papathansaiou was in the lead by the second windward mark and never looked threatened, while Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) worked up from a poor first beat into second place and Høgh-Christensen recovered well to finish third. Lots of high ranked sailors were struggling mid-fleet.

Michael Hruby (CZE) was close on Papathanasiou's transom in race two but could only watch while the Greek sailor sailed away from the fleet. With Hruby dropping to fourth by the finish, Høgh-Christensen had pulled through to second while Brendan Casey (AUS) sailed well to place third.