JAMIE LEA WINS EUROPEAN RANKING!

After a fantastically well fought nine event series Britain's Jamie Lea has won the 2002 European Ranking by just 6.5 points. The battle for second through fourth place was extremely tight with just 1.5 points separating the three boats. Finland's Kristoffer Spone took second, half a point ahead of Frenchman Olivier Ponthieu who in turn was one point ahead of fourth place Rob Smith from England. The series opened at Easter with the SNIM Regatta and covered all the European National Championship events as well as the compulsory World Championship which scored an additional 50% for the first time this season. Competitors count their scores for the Worlds plus two other regattas.

With two more events to go In the North American Ranking Mike Dow has an 8.25 point lead over Jeff Jones with Peter Dalton a further 15.25 points behind in third. Harry Melges holds a wild card however as he is currently counting only two event scores so if he races in the Gold Cup and/or Kings Day Regatta he could easily turn his eigth place into an overall victory. The compulsory event in the North American Ranking was the North American Championship which received a 25% scoring bonus and again it is this event plus two other regattas to count.

Melges is also in the same position with the World Ranking where again he is counting one less result than the other leading competitors. On results to date Jamie Lea is leading the World Ranking by 13 points from nearest rival Rob Smith with Britain's Stuart Rix in third and Finlands Antii Niniranta in fourth. For the World Ranking competitors count the World Championship plus three other results.

The remaining events on the North American/World Ranking are the US Gold Cup in San Francisco from 26-27 October and the Kings Day Regatta in Jacksonville on 16-17 November.