Budgen brothers cut a dash

Sailing

The Budgen brothers, Andy and Ian, convincingly won the Audi Laser 5000 National Championship in Hayling Bay yesterday, writes Stuart Alexander.

The series had been cut from 15 to 12 races after being blown off on Thursday, but the pair, who led all the way, comfortably held off the challenge of the local helm Tracey Covell and crew Steve Mitchell.

Watching the 5000s go through their paces was Mike Jackson, chairman of the evaluation team which will be taking another look at the boat next week on Italy's Lake Garda.

On behalf of the International Sailing Federation, he will be looking at 11 candidates for a class of high-performance dinghy to be considered for the 2000 Games in Sydney.

The trials will be nothing to the political tribulations that will follow as the existing classes fight tooth and nail to retain their places at November's annual general meeting. "I can see," Jackson said, "that many countries may vote to stick with the devil they know, rather than one they don't know."