The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

The seventh Star Sailors League Finals got underway with a pair of races on opening day yesterday.

The lone Bahamian in the field, former 5.5 Metre World Champion Mark Holowesko, has some ground to make up after he finished 23rd in race one and 21st in race two for a total of 44 points.

Holowesko and crew - Christoph Burger of Switzerland - are currently ranked No.23 in the field. Following the first day of competition, Eivind Melleby of Norway (captain) and Josh Revkin of the United States (crew) lead the field with six points. They finished second in race one and fourth in race two.

Diego Negri of Italy (captain) and Frithjof Kleen of Germany (crew) are just one point behind in second place with seven points after a win in race one, but a sixth place finish in race two.

In third and fourth place respectively with 13 points are the teams of Oskari Muhonen (Finland) and Vitali Kushnir (Ukraine) and Fredeick Loof (Sweden) and Brian Faith (USA).

Hamish Pepper of New Zealand and Pedro Trouche of Brazil were the winners of race two. They finished 13th in race one and round out the top five, leading a group of three teams with 14 points. The field will compete in four races when competition gets underway at 11am today.

After four days of qualification rounds for all 23 crews, the competition goes into the knockout stages on Saturday.

The last four teams will contest a final race, the first to finish will be the winner of the 2019 SSL Finals and take home the lion’s share of the $200,000 prize purse.

You can follow the action live and free streaming on the Internet with expert commentary from special studio guests. Follow the Star Sailors League on the official website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to be updated on the SSL Finalists, social events and more of the Star Sailors League major event of the year.

Holowesko finished second at the 2017 International 5.5 Metre Class Association’s World Championship, but returned in 2018 to take the overall title.

He captained the New Moon, with Burger and Peter Vlasov as crew, to victory.

New Moon won four of the nine races contested and finished the contest with 18 total points to claim the title.