The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

The penultimate day of qualifying at the Star Sailors League Finals featured another change atop the leaderboard and the best finishes for Bahamian Mark Holowesko.

Holowesko and crew - Christoph Burger of Switzerland began the day with a 16th place finish in race six. They followed with their best finish of the qualifying round, 15th place in race seven and were 21st in race eight.

The first race of the day required three starts to get away clearly as the fleet pushed the start line to gain an advantage.

Mateusz Kusnierwicz (Poland) and five-time Star World Champion crew, and titleholder, Bruno Prada (Brazil) moved into first place with finishes in fourth, second and 10th yesterday. The duo has a score of 33, 10 points ahead of second place.

Ian Percy of the United Kingdom and Anders Ekstrom of Sweden had two top five finishes yesterday to move into second with 43 points.

The day two leaders, Diego Negri of Italy (captain) and Frithjof Kleen of Germany (crew), fell out of the top spot and were relegated to third after a difficult day on the sea.

They were disqualified in race six, finished 21st in race five and 11th in race eight for a score of 46.

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

Single races decide who survives and who is heading for the dock. The last four teams will contest a thrilling final race.

And the first team to finish will be the winner of the Star Sailors League Finals and take home the lion’s share of the $200,000 prize purse.