DAY 2
Two more races for the mens and womens fleets were completed on the second day of racing in Algiers. The light conditions were similar to the first day apart from a small wind shift in the second race which rewarded the sailors in the men’s who chose the right hand side of the course.
Series leader, Youssef Akrout from Tunsia pushed a little too hard at the start of the third race and scored a disqualification for being early at the start signal instead of another first place. His loss was a gain for Rodney Govinden SEY whose best result so far of second place became a first place.
Akrout resumed his dominance of the fleet in the second race covering the right hand side of the course to take his third win of the series. Govinden missed the shift and dropped to fifth while his compatriot, Allan Julie, climbed to second place by taking the opposite side of the second windward leg.
In the womens fleet Imene Cherif Sahraoui ALG repeated her 1,2 performance of the first day to maintain her overall lead. After a conservative start in the second row of the second race she had to fight back from a fifth place at the end of the first windward leg. To finish a good day overall for Seychelles Noha Akil won the start and the first leg of the second race by a large enough margin to secure her first race win of the series.
Although there are still 3 racing days left to sail the remaining 6 races there was a collective sigh of relief in the boat park that the minimum number of races have now been completed for the championship to be valid. This is particularly important for the countries hoping to gain one of the two remaining 2016 Olympic country places available in each of the single-handed Laser and Laser Radial fleets.
The initiative of the International Olympic Committee requiring that international sports federations have specific continental qualifications as part of their country qualification programme has created a strong interest in Africa. This, in turn, has led to the formation of an African Sailing Federation and several initiatives to develop year on year pan African sailing competitions. In the Laser and Laser Radial classes 10 countries have taken part in Olympic country qualification events for 2016.
Jeff Martin
Overall Positions after 4 races with 1 discard (all competitors – entry limit of two per country):
Womens Laser Radial
- Imene Cherif Sahraoui ALG 4pts
- Khouloud Mansi EGY 6pts
- Ines GMATI TUN 8pts
- Alison Hoareau SEY 10pts
- Noha Akil ALG 14pts
- Olvya Bakry EGY 18pts
- Maoia Mabyaia MOZ 19 pts
- Nada Bassossi TUN 24 pts
Mens Laser
- Youssef Akrout TUN 3pts
- Manuel Lelo ANG 7pts
- Rodney Govinden SEY 10pts
- Allan Julie SEY 11pts
- Sherif Moustafa EGY 11pts
- Idris Bouhadda ALG 13pts
- Wassim Ziani ALG 17pts
- Seif Dhaouadi TUN 18pts
- Ahmed Ragab EGY 21pts
- Halife Mpondi TAN 27pts