Beadsworth and Heiner reach Malaysia Challenge semisfinals
By Lukman Natanagara
LANGKAWI, Malaysia (JP): Skippers Andy Beadsworth of England and Roy Heiner of the Netherlands qualified for Thursday's semifinals of the Malaysia Challenge sailing championships after winning their races on Wednesday.
Beadsworth, world ranked 17, has collected a total of 20 points, trailed by world number 43 Heiner with 17.
Two more semifinal spots will be decided among six skippers -- Croatian Tomislav Basic, Swede Magnus Holmberg, Dane Sten Mohr, German Marcus Wieser, Frenchman Phillipe Presti and Australian Sebastien Destreneau -- competing in the three delayed elimination races early Thursday.
Basic and Holmberg are the strongest contenders to secure semifinal tickets after collecting 13 points each. Mohr, Wieser, Presti and Destreneau are tied with 10 points.
Maxim Taranov of Russia and Hamdan Yahya of Malaysia lost all chance of advancing with scores of four and two respectively. Although they still can compete in the remaining three races of delayed elimination, the results will not influence their scores.
Skippers who fail to qualify for the semifinals compete for the fifth to 10th places. The only one of the three elimination begun on Wednesday was Destreneau against Taranov, with the latter leading 1-0.
Races for other eight skippers were delayed to Thursday due to heavy rain.
In the two delayed elimination races early Wednesday, Beadsworth finished first by beating Heiner 2-1. Mohr was third in defeating Basic 2-0.
Beadsworth earlier beat Basic 2-1 while Heiner beat Mohr 2-0.
"It was a tough race but I am happy with the victory. I feel confident I will enter the semifinals because I have already collected 20 points," Beadsworth told The Jakarta Post.
"Heiner is a good skipper and I hope I could beat him in the semifinals on Thursday."
Beadsworth, who said he began sailing at the age of six, said the Malaysia Challenge was part of his warm-up schedule for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
"We still have a long way ahead but I will continue practicing."
Beadsworth has been competing in sailing races since 1992. The Briton will compete in the Sydney International Regatta from Dec. 10 to Dec. 17.
Heiner said that Wednesday's light wind hampered his performance against Beadsworth.
"If the wind was strong, I certainly could have beaten Beadsworth."
The Malaysia Challenge -- sponsored by Malaysian state-owned oil company Petronas, in cooperation with the Business Focus Group and Malaysia Airlines -- offers a total purse of US$75,000.
The winner takes home $17,400, the runner-up receives $10,439 and third-place finisher gets $8,709.