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11 August 2005, 11:24 am

ALBALAT Dominates

Laser 4.7 World Championship 2005

Barrington, Rhode Island, USA

Joaquin ALBALAT (ESP) put on a dominant display on days two and three of the Laser 4.7 World Championship in Barrington, Rhode Island, USA to head into today's races with a perfect five points from six races. The young Spaniard holds a seven point lead over his nearest challenger, Turkey's Guney Can KAPTAN.

Rain squalls and large windshifts on the second day did their best to disrupt the programme with a light sea breeze which pulled 90 degrees left causing the immediate abandonment of the first race. After a 90 minute wait in no wind and humid conditions the sea breeze surprisingly built again. Having lost a first place in the abandoned race, series leader, ALBALAT, took the restarted yellow fleet race easily from Alexander WENDER (BRA) whilst Rudy MCNEIL (RSA) fought hard for his win with Resat YELAZ (TUR) in the blue fleet.

ALBALAT failed to make it four in row after a bad first windward leg in his second race. He climbed through the fleet to third but was unable to catch WENDER in front of him and

race winner Marco TEXIDOR (PUR) who port tacked the fleet at the start. In the blue fleet Adam SIMS (GBR) scored his first win of the series after a close battle with Dany TANISIC from Slovenia.

Day three dawned with blue skies and a 14 knot sea breeze - perfect sailing conditions. The expected right shift never arrived but ALBALAT was back in the groove to score another impressive first place with a lead of over 100 metres. The two time European Optimist Champion, who has only just turned 16 years old, dominated again in the second race of the day to lead home STANISIC for the second time.

KAPTAN matched ALBALAT's double victory in the blue fleet but he had to work harder to overtake 14 year old Christian CREMER (USA) in the first race and another 14 year old, Max-Marteen MOERMAN (NED) on the last leg of the second race.

Similar winds are forecast for the last day of the qualifier fleet today, before the split into gold and silver fleets for the last two days.

Top Ten After Six Races

Pos	Nation	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	ESP	Joaquin BLANCO ALBALAT	1	1	1	(3)	1	1	5
2	TUR	Guney Can KAPTAN	4	3	(6)	3	1	1	12
3	GBR	Adam SIMS	3	2	3	1	4	(11)	13
4	SLO	Dany STANISIC	(10)	1	10	2	2	2	17
5	GBR	Tom HAYES	1	4	(8)	4	3	5	17
6	BRA	Philip Alexander WENDER	5	6	2	2	(22)	7	22
7	PUR	Marco TEIXIDOR	(28)	7	4	1	10	6	28
8	SLO	Jure MRAKIC	(23)	3	7	4	6	8	28
9	SLO	Nik PLETIKOS	5	5	5	5	8	(15)	28
10	USA	Stephanie ROBLE	2	(9)	9	9	5	4	29