Sailing: Shark not only scare for Wright

Competitors approach the top mark in the Women’s Laser Radial event at the ISAF World Sailing Championships off Fremantle near Perth yesterday

The world’s top-ranked Finn sailor, Great Britain’s Edward Wright, recovered emphatically from a potentially costly disqualification on the fifth day of the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Western Australia yesterday.
Having been unable to race on Tuesday due to a massive summer electrical storm that swept across Perth, the two Finn fleets resumed competition yesterday under the close watch of increased aerial patrols after a large white pointer shark was seen in the area the previous evening.
With berths at next year’s London Olympics on the line, Wright was one of a group of high profile sailors that suffered black flag disqualifications in the first heats of the day.
With the top 36 sailors progressing to the next round, it dropped Wright down to 28th overall after three of the six races had been completed.
However, Wright bounced back to the win his next two heats and, with his worst race result automatically deducted, climbed back to fourth in the overall standings, just two points behind joint leader Rafael Trjujillo, of Spain, and France’s Jonathan Lobert.
Wright was one of four major black flag casualties early in the day, along with Trujillo, Croatian world number four Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic and fifth-ranked American Zach Railey.
However, the automatic worst score deduction means their mistakes won’t be costly provided they don’t suffer the same fate in their final heats today.
There were no such problems for British duo Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell in the men’s 470, the pair winning three successive heats in blue fleet yesterday to be joint leaders with Australians Matthew Belcher and Malcolm Page, who also won all three heats in the yellow fleet.
Frenchwoman Claire Leroy, ranked second in the world, surged to the top of the women’s match racing Group B, with seven wins from eight races, while Belgium’s Evi van Acker leads the way in the women’s Laser Radial.
Event director John Longley briefed the sailors yesterday morning with regards to the sighting of the shark estimated at 4-5m long, placing competitors and officials on high alert.
With three fatal shark attacks in WA’s South-West in recent months and several near misses, including two divers being chased by a white pointer off Perth earlier this week, organisers were already sensitive to the threat posed by sharks.
They changed the sailing rules for the regatta to allow officials to intervene if sailors became separated from their boats.
“The safety of athletes is paramount,” Longley said.
“This is part of the reason why we changed the racing rules for the Perth 2011 ISAF Worlds not to penalise sailors who need assistance to get back into their boats after a capsize.”