Sail Brisbane - Casey on track in the Finn Class

11:55 PM Sat 28 Nov 2009 GMT

'Brendan Casey leads the Finn fleet after two days of Sail Brisbane' Craig Heydon

Former World Laser Radial champion Brendan Casey kept his Olympic Finn class campaign on track when he convincingly won the seventh and eighth heats of the Yachting Queensland International Sail Brisbane championship series on a bumpy Waterloo Bay yesterday.

The Gold Coast helmsman who has won previous Sail Brisbane Gold Medals in the Olympic Laser class has transferred that form in the larger and more physically demanding Finn Dinghy compiling the impressive 1-1-1-1-2-1-1-3 score to lead England's Henry Bagnall by four points while Mooloolaba's Bucky Smith holds third.

Casey has expressed his class and valuable singlehanded sailing experience on the course and that skill showed out again when he protected his sailing space and selected all the smarter options with the variable wind direction changes.

His tactical duel against Henry Bagnall has been a feature in all of the eight heats contested in a mixed range of wind strengths and both are expected to become locked in another nip-n-tuck struggle to decide the championship when the sails are tensioned for the final.

However Henry Bagnall has the job ahead of him to not only break Casey's confidence but also haul back the important four points in what promises to become a tense match race.

Meanwhile World Etchells champion Casey Smith racing his first regatta in a bid to win Olympic selection for London in 2012 has overcome the lack of class experience to hold third overall and seems assured to win the Bronze Medal while Brendan Casey is well placed to win Gold ahead of Henry Bagnall.

Young Maroochydore Sailing Club skipper Mitchell Kennedy and his equally talented Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron rival Ben Franklin are only separated by one point after eight races to decide the medals in the International Laser Radial class.

Kennedy assumed the lead after winning both heats yesterday and he hopes to repeat those results in the final today to achieve his career best result while Ben Franklin will be equally determined to protect his points and sailing space against the open women's championship leader Annalise Murphy of Ireland in what is expected to evolve into an exciting final for all three skippers.

by Ian Grant