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Blanck ahead in Europe class

Conditions were "hard and testing"

HAMILTON, Canada -- Sarah Blanck of Australia was leading the Europe class World Championships after scoring two first places on the second day of racing in Hamilton, Canada.

She had a two-point lead over Siren Sundby of Norway in a class introduced to the Olympics for single-handed female crews in Barcelona in 1992.

The men have two Olympic single-handed classes, the Laser for the lighter crews and the more technical Finn for the heavier crews.

There are 109 boats entered in the women's class at the Europe worlds in Hamilton Harbour on the western edge of Lake Ontario. There are 48 entries in the men's.

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Two races were sailed on the second day in two divisions with British sailor Kirsty Bonar getting off to a flying start with her first win of the championships and Blanck with two wins in the other division.

Bonar could only manage a 32nd in the second race, moving her up to 15th overall.

After the two races Bonar said: "The conditions in Hamilton are really hard and testing. Very few people are managing to be consistent and I think that will be the key to the event."

The competitors have two more days of qualifying rounds before being split into gold, silver and bronze fleets, when they will race in the final series on September 2-3.

The winner of the gold group will be crowned the 2002 Europe class world champion.

Europe World Championship points after four races (one discard)

Female

1 Sarah Blanck AUSTRALIA (2,(3),1,1) 4 points

2 Siren Sundby NORWAY (1,1,(20),4) 6 pts

3 Sari Multala FINLAND (1,1,(8),5) 7 pts

4 Signe Livbergj DENMARK 8 pts

5 Petra Ninemann GERMANY 9 pts

Male

1 Soren Johnsen DENMARK (3, 5, 2, (10)) 10 points

2 Bart Stryven BELGIUM (1, (7), 4, 6) 11 pts

3 Gerard Marin SPAIN (4, (20), 7, 2) 13 pts

4 Christopher Gundersen NORWAY 13 pts

5 Oscar Claeson SWEDEN (5, 3, (8), 7) 15 pts