420 European championships day 4 - Queensland sailors close second

8:09 AM Sun 14 Aug 2011 GMT

'Day 4 - 420 European Junior Championships 2011' Christophe Favreau ?

420 International European Junior Championships are being sailed on the North Sea off Nieuwpoort, Belgium. Young Australians Angus Galloway and Alexander Gough are just two points off the lead in the gold fleet after day four of racing.

The Queensland crew, bronze medallists at the ISAF Youth World Championships, again maintained their consistent sailing with a seventh and a third place. They have not finished worse than seventh in the eight heats sailed so far and have had three first places.

Conditions overnight were more manageable, with the winds easing back to 10 knots, although the breeze was shifty and the seaway still lumpy for the 101 competitors, now split into gold, silver and bronze fleets.

Galloway and Gough are two points behind the equally consistent French crew of Guillaume Pirouelle and Valentin Sipan, who had their first double digit result, a 17th place in heat eight.

Fellow Australians Alec Bailey and Doug Shephard from Tasmania had a mediocre day in the gold fleet, placing 34th and 21st, their worse results of the regatta. They are back to 20th overall.

Class act of the day was the 1-2 result achieved by Greek sailors Alexander and George Kavas which lifted them to third overall.

Apart from the Greeks and the Australians, all of the top teams posted at least one disappointing result on their scorecard as they struggled to find pace and direction in the shifty conditions.

Two more races are scheduled to complete the European 420 junior championships with the Queensland crew well in running for victory.