After a Brazilian dominated the first day of the Radial Open, the World Championship lead was taken by Russian, Igor Lisovenko. With a second and a third place position in today´s races, he now has two advantage points over Brazilians, Fábio Dutra and Eduardo Couto. Couto, leader in the first day of races, blames the windspeed for the fall - it oscilated between seven and eight knots. ''Today was complicated, but if the wind comes back up, I should be able to sail on top''.

The windspeed is not a problem at all for Australian, Sarah Blanck, who came from third place to first in the Radial Women. She placed fourth at Athenas Olympic Games in the European class, and spent almost a year without competing. She just restarted training six weeks ago. This is her first championship at Laser Radial. “’I came here to decide if I should keep sailing or not. I enjoy sailing with a low wind and I am doing great so far’.” British competitor, Penny Muntford, came in second and American, Paige Railey, in third.

Even though they are still far from the lead, Brazilian, Bruno Rodrigues and Croatian, Tina Mihelic, had a spectacular day today. Both won the two races they were in and raised their standings in the overall results. Nineteen year old Bruno traded 21st place for seventh, and also got a bonus: in the last race of the day, his older brother, Tiago, came in second, starting a family party on the docks. ‘’It was perfect. I made no mistakes and got an even better result than I was hoping for!’’, said the lucky youngster.

Tina recovered from a disappointing Sunday, in which she finished 33rd overall. Now she has jumped to sixth place. French competitor, Sarah Stayert, who led on the first day, had a very disappointing Monday, after receiving a penalty that placed her 27th in the first race.

Two races are programmed for Tuesday, closing out the qualifying phase. The competition continues until Friday for the 165 athletes from 39 participating countries.

The Laser Worlds 2005 includes four world championships: Senior (September 19th to 28th), Master (September 30th to October 8th), Radial Open & Women (December 3rd to 9th) and Radial Youth (December 10th to 17th). The events are organized by the International Laser Class Association, Brazilian Laser Class Association, Ceara State Sailing Federation, Brazilian Sailing Federation and Yacht Club of Fortaleza. The sponsors are: Ceara State Government, through the Sports and Youth Bureau, Marina Park Hotel and Hamburg Süd. The event also has the support of the Brazilian Navy, Banco do Nordeste do Brasil, Mayor of Fortaleza, Unilink, Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club and Pirata Bar.