With one race to go at the Star World Championships in Punta Ala, Italy, RYA Team GBR’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ian Walker (from Kensington in London) and Mark Covell (Emsworth in Hampshire) are in fifth place in the overall standings and third non qualified nation.

Following their thirty fifth place in this afternoons fifth race, which was sailed in a shifty 10 – 15 knot breeze, Walker and Covell drop two places overall in the one hundred and thirty boat fleet.

However, with two American crews (skippered by Eric Doyle & Mark Reynolds), one Canadian crew (Olympic Bronze Medallist Ross Macdonald) and one German team (Vincnet Hoesch; Germany have already qualified as a nation for the Sydney Olympics in the Star class) the British Elite World Class Performance team are still inside the top four non qualified nations who will each receive a place in the Star class line up at next year’s Games.

With the single discard coming into effect today, provisional results show Eric Doyle and Tom Olson (USA) leading the regatta by five points from 1992 Olympic Bronze Medallist Ross Macdonald (Canada), with Walker’s and Covell’s United Airlines on 41 points.

“We need a good race tomorrow, it’s still all to play for” said Ian. The regatta concludes tomorrow.

ITALY: Punta Ala: Star World Championships after day 5 (provisional overall results after race 5)
1, Eric Doyle and Tom Olsen (USA) 25pts
2, Ross Macdonald and Kai Bjorn (Can) 25pts
3, Vincent Hoesch and Fendt Florian (Ger) 29pts
4, Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljedahl (USA) 35pts
5, Ian Walker and Mark Covell (GBR) 41pts