No Way Back leads in DHL as breeze picks up

Dubai : The sea breeze is slowly establishing itself in Dubai, which allowed three good races including the coastal race DHL Trophy to take place at the Dubai International Marine Club yesterday.

On great form, Pieter Heerema's No Way Back managed to remain among the top four since the beginning of the event; a feat that no other team managed to achieve and that places them in a good position ahead of the last day, 11 points ahead of Artemis and 16 over third placed Team Aqua.

No Way Back's tactician Ray Davies said: "We knew that the start of the DHL Trophy would be very important, because there were few passing opportunities afterwards.

"I think that one of our advantages is that we are an underdog and we didn't really have much pressure.

"On the other hand, some teams have been very unlucky. They are also the ones that had most pressure on them."

The first race of the day saw the long-expected come back of Ceeref, very unfortunate since the beginning of the event. More at ease in strong breeze, Igor Lah managed to overtake both No Way Back and Artemis, winning the regatta and putting an end to a long series of way below average results.

Helmsman Lah commented: "Our confidence is slowly back but we have had a very difficult time. Our results were just getting worse and worse throughout the season and I was starting to wonder if I could still make it. Then we got those two excellent races and it is the proof that the answer is yes."

RANKINGS

1) No Way Back, Pieter Heerema 19 points

2) Artemis, Tim Snedden 30 points

3) Team Aqua, Chris Bake 35 points

4) Team Katusha, Bob Little 42 points

5) Ceeref, Igor Lah 45 points

6) BMW ORACLE Racing, Neville Crichton 47 points

7) Team Austria, Christian Binder 48 points

8) Team Sea Dubai, Yousef Lahej 54 points

9) Organika, Maciej Nawrocki 57 points

10) Puerto Calero Islas Canarias, Daniel Calero, 61 points