Gold for Andrews and Pascoe at the Delta Lloyd Regatta
by Lindsey Bell, RYA 25 May 2013 22:16 BST
21-25 May 2013
Andrews claims first Finn victory in Holland
Mark Andrews kept the run of British Finn success going on Saturday (25 May), claiming a last-gasp gold and his first ever senior podium finish at the Dutch leg of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup.
Megan Pascoe also celebrated gold in the 2.4mR class – her fourth straight podium finish of the year – with the British Sailing Team ending this Delta Lloyd Regatta with seven medals from five classes.
The 27-year-old Scotsman Andrews becomes the fourth British sailor in four events to top the podium in the heavyweight dinghy class, with Ed Wright, Giles Scott and Andrew Mills – who won today's medal race to claim bronze – all winning recent World Cup and EUROSAF events.
Andrews went into the medal race in third place. Hyeres World Cup winner Mills led the race from the start, and at one stage looked like ousting his teammate from the podium, But the Largs sailor fought to the end to finish second in the medal race and claim the overall victory.
"It's pretty fantastic – it was down to the wire," Andrews explained. "I think at the windward mark I'd maybe just got into the medals then there was a nice little gybe and gust, I took a few boats and got into second place. It wasn't over until it was over.
"It's an awesome confidence boost. The other Finn guys are amazing – Millsy and Giles and Ed – we've all won an event each this year so it's going to be tight all the way up to Rio in 2016."
After his victory, Andrews once more paid tribute to former Finn sailor, teammate and Olympic gold and silver medallist Andrew Simpson, who died earlier this month in an America's Cup training accident.
"I'd known Bart for ten years or so since I was fresh out of school. He kind of took all the guys – not just the Finn sailors but everyone in the team – under his wing. He was always supportive of everyone and the kind of person you could talk to if you had a bad day, or anything technical.
"He was that perfect guy who always had time for someone and was obviously a fantastic sailor as well. Definitely this one's for him and it's good that we kept the Finn winning streak going."
There was a fierce battle for honours in the 2.4mR Paralympic class as well, with Megan Pascoe extending podium streak to four medals from four events. She held off Paralympic champion Helena Lucas in a nail-biting last race, where just one point separated the two teammates.
"It was getting exciting out there, and it's nice that it was another Brit to get excited with," 26-year-old Pascoe of the final race showdown.
"I think it's really good for our team we've got some great guys coming up and it's been a really good regatta."
The Ardingly sailor was delighted with her consistent show this week, across a mixture of weather conditions on the Ijsselmeer.
"I think my mental resilience was a real positive – every time a shift went wrong it was just a case of trying again, and keep on coming back. I showed my consistency, I didn't drop outside the top three so I'm really happy with that.
Lucas agreed that Medemblik had provided a tough test for the sailors this week: "I think we've had everything from rain, hail, 20 knots, no wind. It's been probably one of the trickiest regattas I've done for quite a while," the 2012 gold medallist explained.
"It was good racing today though, it came down to who beat who so there was a little bit of match racing going on up the second beat. Meg did a great job and hung on to the lead and did really well."
Alison Young also maintained her medal-winning streak in the Laser Radial event, claiming bronze on the water today and a third podium spot from her past three regattas.
The Bewdley Olympian went into the day with the yellow leader's jersey, and finished the six-boat medal race in third behind Ireland's Annalise Murphy and the host nation's Olympic silver medallist Marit Bouwmeester. All three sailors were then tied on points, with the tiebreak determined on the medal race positions.
"It was a close little battle with Marit and unfortunately couldn't get past her on the run, so finished up third," Young explained.
"But things are moving on – I spent most of last year finishing fourth, so now with three regattas and three medals things are going in the right direction."
There was bronze also for the Paralympic Sonar trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas, who posted 3,2 in their final two races of the regatta today to maintain their podium spot.
"It's been a pretty tough week – windy and shifty and pretty tough all round, but it's good to get on the podium for our second event back," commented Robertson.
"We've just been working through the different things, looking at rig settings, trying to make sure we're going fast and it was all good this week."
It was a tough end to the week for Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre, who sailed a consistent series to head into the 470 Women's medal race today in second overall, but finished sixth in the race to end their regatta in fifth place overall, falling the wrong side of a three-way tiebreak.
"It's great to Mark winning his first event and posting another great British performance in the Finn class this week, as well as a solid performance across the team as a whole amid some pretty difficult conditions," RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park.
"There's been quite a bit of discussion about the racing formats being used. I think we need to be careful not to judge performance gains solely on the results at these regattas – it's swings and roundabouts and clearly some people have done well out of it and others have missed out. From our team perspective the total medal count works out, but the downside of the format is that there's still so much luck involved when you get to the medal race stage."
"It's good to see that we've had people fighting it out in the medal races for most classes we've competed in, which is a good place to be."
The EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup circuit now wings its way to Great Britain for the Sail for Gold Regatta, held on the 2012 waters of Weymouth and Portland from 9-13 June.
"We're looking forward to hosting the third stage of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup, which provides a great opportunity for the international fleet to return to the 2012 Olympic waters for hopefully some great competition," Park continued.
"After this week's conditions in Medemblik, I'm pleased to confirm we have a guarantee of sunny, warm, sea breeze conditions every day which should make for some perfect racing!"
Entries for the Sail for Gold Regatta remain open until 31 May – enter now at www.sailforgold.co.uk
For full results from the Delta Lloyd Regatta visit www.deltalloydregatta.org