Sailing: Japanese pair in charge at ISAF World’s

Japanese duo Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata made a flying start to the women’s 470 at the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Western Australia yesterday.
Ranked 10th in the world, the pair were the leaders after the opening two events in the class.
Kondo, ranked first in the world in 2009 and a world championship runner-up in 2006, and Tabata finished third in the opening heat and then improved to win the subsequent race, giving them a two-point lead over the Netherlands’ Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout.
Top-ranked USA duo Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Farrar Kinsolving were languishing in a disappointing 22nd place, after finishing 28th in both races.
Meanwhile, Israel’s golden run in the windsurfing at the championships continued.
Just 24 hours after Lee Korzits won the women’s gold medal, countryman Nimrod Mashich set the early standard in the men’s event.
A first and second placing in his two races yesterday had him sharing the top of the table with Poland’s Piotr Myszka.
The Pole is ranked first in the world, and Mashich is second.
Mashich might have held the lead by himself, but was passed on the final leg on the first race by the Netherlands’ Dornian Rijsselberghe, who was third on the table.
Myszka, sailing in the opposite fleet to Mashich, also finished first and second in his two races.
As expected, the high-speed men’s 49er skiffs produced highly competitive action on the opening day of racing, with Denmark duo Jonas Warrer and Soeren Hansen sharing the lead with New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke.
Warrer, who teamed with Martin Kirketerp Ibsen to win gold at the Beijing Olympics, and Hansen made a perfect start with a win in their first race, before finishing fourth and fifth in their next two heats.
France’s Claire Leroy showed she was the boat to beat in the women’s match racing when she claimed top seeding in gold group.
Leroy advanced to the quarter-finals in style, by beating American world number one Anna Tunnicliffe 2-0 in their match-up for the top seeding.
The 31-year-old Frenchwoman is aiming for her third world championship ahead of the event’s Olympic debut in London next year.
The consistency of British pair Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson gave them a clear lead in the Star class.
Despite not winning any of the opening four races, they did not finished worse than fifth and led by 12 points.
Sweden’s Jesper Stalheim was a surprise leader over local Tom Slingsby after the opening day of racing in the men’s Laser.