Lasers At Hastings
It wasn’t quiet like the Battle of Hastings but for 4 girls battling for Olympic selection in the Laser Radial fleet it was a fair old tussle.
Charlotte Dobson, Andrea Brewster, Lizzie Vickers and Penny Clark have been told they are the short listed quartet for Beijing and a decision will be made after Miami OCR in January or the Laser Radial World Championships in March if necessary.
To get to the World Championships you need to qualify via the UK Laser Association Rankings Ladder based on a series of Qualifying Regattas Hastings marked the 3rd such autumnal event following on from Pwllheli and Paignton.
Victory in Hastings went to Scots lass Charlotte Dobson with rivals Andrea Brewster 3rd and Lizzie Vickers 5th overall to move Dobson up to 3rd overall on the Radial Ladder with Vickers lying 4th and Brewster 6th to ensure all 3 women qualify for the 2008 Worlds.
Truro’s Rosie Chapman finished 14th overall and was the 6th placed woman at the event, which leaves her 17th overall on the Ladder and the 9th placed woman. Only 8 places are allocated to the UK and as such I think she may just miss out on being invited to New Zealand. It may well depend on whether all 8 places are taken up.
The battle for the Olympic berth I suspect will go on until after the World Championships as it is that close.
In the Laser Standard fleet the status quo prevailed with Paul Goodison the Beijing candidate comfortably winning from the young pretender Nick Thompson with Philip Reynolds (Saltash) finishing 14th overall and George Cousins (Mounts Bay) coming home 21st overall.
Philip has not sailed sufficient Qualifiers to get a meaningful ranking yet but George has and is currently 19th overall on the Standard Ladder and the 7th ranked youth sailor.
It will be interesting to see how high the pair can aspire to in what is a ferociously competitive fleet.
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