Brazilian Eduardo Couto retakes the lead of Radial Open. He domained the first day of races, but later lost the first place for two days to russian Igor Lisovenko. This Wednesday, Couto got a second and a third place, going back to the top, nine points ahead. Lisovenko had a bad day, finishing both races as tenth and dropping two positions. The new runner-up is american Brad Funk, that has working his way up with the stronger wind. In the last two days he jumped up from 13th to second thanks to four races at 12 knots and higher.

‘’The wind is stronger than in the first days, so the rivals are differents now. I’m in delicated situation because of two yellow flags. For now on i have to sail easily to avoid being punished again. I can afford the risk to be sent off the championship’’, says Couto.

At the Radial Women, american Paige Railey seems to be two days apart from her first world title. She hold on to the lead even having her worst day in Fortaleza. With two eight places, Paige stays in first in great part because of the unstable overcome of her opponents. Australian Sarah Blanck, who has the second position, won one of Wednesday´s races, but was only 17th at the other and fell to fourth place overall. Better for american Ana Tunnicliffe, the new number two, 11 points behind Paige.

‘’This championship is a full surprise, because on every race that is a different group of girls sailing ahead. Never thought i could be first based on a better average’’, admitted Paige, who did not win any of the eight races ran so far. She said that could had a greater result this Wednesday, but made mistakes and went wrong downwind, what cost her a few important positions.

This Thursday will be two more races. The world champions are going to be defined on Friday, with the two final races for the 45 sailors on Open´s gold fleet and the women´s top 38. At the silver fleet, best results this Wednesday came to brazilian Rafael Bartijoto at the Open and canadian Keamia Rosa at Radial Women.

The Laser Worlds 2005 includes four world championships: Sênior (September 19th to 28th), Máster (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, thru 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.