French Olympic Sailing Week in Hyères - Overall
by Lindsey Bell, RYA 30 Apr 2010 18:01 BST
25-30 April 2010
Golden treble for British sailors in Hyeres
Britain’s sailors scored a golden hat-trick on finals day at the French Olympic Sailing Week in Hyeres, with Bryony Shaw, Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith, and Paul Goodison all sealing victory on Friday (30 April).
Skandia Team GBR had a strong finish to this fourth leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup series, picking up five medals from the regatta as Laser Radial sailor Charlotte Dobson and 2.4mR Paralympic sailor Megan Pascoe also added silver and bronze to the British tally.
The final races were once again delayed by the light wind conditions which have prevailed throughout the week. Shaw’s medal race was abandoned, handing her overall victory and her second straight World Cup podium finish by 18 points over Spain’s Blanca Manchon.
“It was a shame not to get out and do the medal race, but I’m really happy with the racing this week. It’s been really light winds, so hard work, but I’m dominating in the light winds and have had really consistent results this week so I’m really happy.
“I had the yellow jersey after day one so it was nice to keep that all week. I wasn’t necessarily expecting it but our training’s been going really well. It shows that all that is moving in the right direction.”
Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith went into the final 49er race with a relatively comfortable eight point margin, but took no chances against tough opposition in their fleet. They finished ninth in the medal race, but with nearest rivals – Austria’s Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch – just two places ahead of them in the 10-boat double-points scoring finale, it was enough to hand the duo their first event victory since reuniting as a team last summer after six years apart.
“It wasn’t until it had been confirmed that [the win] felt good, but until that point we were on edge!” Asquith explained.
“With the points margin, all we had to do was stay close to the competition and it panned out pretty well. We kept everything pretty chilled, the guys put us in positions where it was easy for us just to follow them round the track, so we were trying to keep our heads out and not let them get too far away from us.”
Brotherton, who last won here in the 49er class in 2001, has fond memories of Hyeres as a venue.
“I suppose 21 years ago, when I first competed here I had no idea I’d be back here now – I can’t say that I’m upset that I am!
“I do enjoy coming here and I really enjoyed when I was coaching here as well actually as it always throws up some interesting scenarios. There’s a lot of things you can learn from a regatta like this.”
British development squad 49er duo Dave Evans and Ed Powys also saw a strong finish to their regatta, just missing out on a podium finish in fourth.
With the points perilously close heading into the Laser medal race, Paul Goodison showed the nerve which helped him to Olympic, World and European Championship victory. One point behind the series leader Javier Hernandez before the start of the race, Goodison made sure of his first World Cup title of the year by winning the medal race to seal regatta gold with a 14-point margin.
“It feels pretty good to have come back from my first regatta again this year, and to have started this year like I started and finished last year, so I’m really in a positive mood,” Goodison explained.
“The racing here has been quite tricky all week with the light winds – a lot of sitting around and waiting, but I think we’ve dealt with that quite well and have come away with the result we were after.”
Charlotte Dobson took a superb World Cup silver in the Laser Radial class with the help of a medal race victory. Dobson was fourth going into the final day but pulled out all the stops to grasp her first podium finish at a World Cup event since taking silver at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta in 2008.
Megan Pascoe sailed a solid final two races in the 2.4mR Paralympic class to wrap up the Skandia Team GBR medal tally, with results of 1,4 from Friday seeing her into the bronze medal position.
Elsewhere on the final day, Ed Wright finished the Finn fleet in sixth place, with John Gimson and Ed Greig also in sixth in the Star class.
“After such a testing week, it’s really fantastic to be leaving Hyeres with five medals,” said RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park.
“I’m really pleased for Bryony and Paul and Mark, who’ve been strong in these tricky conditions all week, and Paul Goodison as well, who’s shown he’s still the man to beat in the Laser class.
Park continued: “A silver for Charlotte in the Laser Radial event is really well-deserved given all the hard work I know she’s put in during the winter, and it’s also good to see Megan Pascoe with her bronze challenging in the 2.4mR event.
“There are still a number of areas we can improve upon though – with the wealth of talent we have in the 470 men’s class, I was disappointed not to see any British boats make the medal race so that’s an area we’ll have to work on going forward.”
Event Video: (from Ocean Images)
Hyères 2010 from Jack Collins on Vimeo.