49ers at London 2012 - Day 3: Comeback kids boost medal hopes
by RYA 1 Aug 2012 18:48 BST
1 August 2012
Stevie Morrison & Ben Rhodes on day four of the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition © Tom Gruitt /
www.tom-gruitt.co.uk previous next
Stevie Morrison declared "It ain't over yet!" after the British 49er boys got their London 2012 medal quest back on track with a superb display on day four of the Olympic Sailing Regatta at Weymouth and Portland today (Wednesday 1 August).
Morrison and crewman Ben Rhodes entered the day under a bit of pressure for two good scores, having capsized in their second race of yesterday, resulting in them dropping from third to 18th in that race and sitting 12th overall overnight.
But the Exmouth pair showed extreme composure to score fourth and second places today. With the 49ers having completed six races all boats are able to discount their biggest score of the series, an event that catapulted the Brits up the leaderboard, they now sit in fifth place overall, just three points off the medal spots.
Morrison said: "Obviously the results are much better and results are what count. We could say how well we sailed yesterday, we made one mistake and the results show that mistake. Whereas today I don't think we necessarily sailed any better, we just didn't make a big mistake. We knew we were sailing well, and it's just a case of making sure we were good enough to do that. We've not had a great start but if we can keep getting better and better, then you know it ain't over yet!"
Morrison and Rhodes had to use their experience to recover from rounding the first mark in 14th in the first race of today, to steadily move up through the fleet to sit fourth by mark five, the position they maintained until the end of the race. In race two the boys got a great start, rounding mark one in fourth, and then making the most of breezes up to 17 knots, to eventually claim a very telling second place.
Morrison added: "That 18th is always hanging over you, sat there to come and bite us if we make another error. It's about lowering our average result scores and that's what we've done today. We've just got a long way to go. We're only two fifths of the way through so that's a lot more races. You can have a brilliant beginning or a brilliant end and it's about what that totals up to through the whole regatta."
The 49ers (race seven and eight) are scheduled to resume at 12pm tomorrow (Thursday 2 August) on the Portland Harbour course.
The Olympic Sailing Regatta runs from Sunday 29 July – Saturday 11 August. The 49er medal race is scheduled for Wednesday 8 August (1pm).
www.rya.org.uk/london2012