9:58 PM Wed 10 Feb 2010 GMT
Two Australians and two New Zealanders will sail off in the semi-finals of the Hardy Cup 2010 ISAF Grade 3 under 25 match racing regatta on Sydney Harbour after another day of intense competition between young sailors from New South Wales, Western Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
Meeting tomorrow will be Evan Walker from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the Hardy Cup winner in 2008, Jordan Reece from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, sailing in his first Hardy Cup, and the two New Zealanders, defending champion Adrian Short from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland, and Olympic Laser aspirant Josh Junior of Wellington's Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club.
All four finished the two round-robins with a dozen wins apiece, but a countback of flight victories placed Walker as number 1, Short number 2, Reece number 3 and junior number 4. David Chapman, also from the RSYS, placed fifth, while early favourite Will Tiller, also from the RNZYS, finished in sixth place.
Walker, finishing at the top of the leaderboard after two round-robins, has first choice of his semi-final opponent and he won't make a decision until tomorrow morning.
Sailing in a 14 knot nor'easterly seabreeze, the competitors today turned on a brilliant display of tactical sailing and boat-handling, picking the windshifts and exploiting the racing rules to their advantage.
The Hardy Cup in the past has produced champion young match-racing helmsmen and tacticians since the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron took on organising and conducting the event and the semi-finalists this year have the skills to
maintain the high standard.
Despite winning only four flights in the second round-robin, Evan Walker ended as number one over the two round-robins. 'We were much more focused today than yesterday, but a series of errors cost us dearly.late starts, not
picking the windshifts of Point Piper and then a late penalty,' Walker said.
On the other hand, defending Hardy Cup champion Adrian Short said he had a good day. 'We lost only one flight and that was to Evan Walker,' Short said.
Representing the host club, Jordan Reece had an outstanding day with a 6-0 score in the second round-robin. 'We were really fast today and we had good starts,' said Reece. 'That made all the difference.'
Josh Junior did not get the same results today as he did in the first round-robin when he was second top-scorer with seven wins. Nevertheless, his five wins in the second round-robin got the Wellington sailor into the semi-finals and he will be a formidable opponent on the final day. 'Today was an average day but we can improve,' Junior said.
Top scoring skippers in the second round-robin were Adrian Short (RPNYC), David Chapman (RSYS) and David Gilmour from the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club in Perth, each with seven flight wins. However, only Short made the final four for tomorrow's semi-finals which will be followed by the best-of-five match final of the Hardy Cup 2010.
by Peter Campbell
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