World Sailing Championships in Cascais, Portugal - GBR Day 4
by Lindsey Bell, RYA 6 Jul 2007 23:43 BST
28 June - 13 July 2007
49ers off to a flying start
British sailors continued to fare well amidst tricky conditions at the ISAF World Sailing Championships on Friday (6 July), with Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes making an early mark on the first day of racing for the 49er fleet.
The European Champions notched up a win in their opening race of the regatta and quickly followed it up with a second in their subsequent race, behind Ukraine’s Rodion Luka and Georgiy Leonchuk.
“With the wind conditions out there on the course, it was clear that only the right hand track was the only way to go, both upwind and down,” explained Rhodes. “There were some pretty big gusts out there, but we held on and are pretty pleased with our first day.”
But in spite of a strong opening performance, the world number two pair remain focused on the job in hand. “World Championships aren’t won on the first day alone,” Morrison continued “so the results don’t really count for a great deal at this stage. We’re just pleased to have made no silly mistakes out there today!”
With strong winds of 22 knots and upwards sweeping across the 49er race courses, organisers struggled to complete the schedule of races across the skiff fleet. Morrison and Rhodes’ blue fleet and the yellow fleet featuring John Pink-Simon Wheeler and Paul Campbell James-Mark Asquith completed two races. Defending champions Chris Draper-Simon Hiscocks have to wait another day to get their regatta started, as racing in their fleet was abandoned.
The Yngling fleet saw a switch at the top of the leaderboard, with Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson taking over the top spot from overnight leaders Shirley Robertson, Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor. Ayton’s Team Mirabaud posted a 5,2 to Team Shirley Robertson’s 4,9, with the double Olympic gold medallist’s team doing well to recover in the second race after bumping the committee boat at the race start.
Ayton, Webb and Wilson now head into day three of Yngling race with a four point lead.
The RS:X men’s and women’s windsurfers got their regatta underway today – Athens bronze medallist Nick Dempsey scored a 4,1 in his opening two races, stating “I’m just happy to have come out of the day unscathed – it was pretty wacky!” Dempsey is in fifth place overall, while Bryony Shaw had a solid start in the women’s RS:X event, with two fourth place finishes putting her into seventh place.
In the Laser class, Paul Goodison was dealt two yellow flag penalties for illegal pumping of the sails and was forced to retire from his first race of the day, before going on to recover with a fifth to finish the day in third place overall. Ed Wright is in third place with a fifth in the only Finn race of the day, with Olympic development squad sailor Giles Scott posting a notable seventh.
Lizzie Vickers had the best of days in the Laser Radial event, with a 1,2 for her days’ efforts seeing her up to 15th place overall – Charlotte Dobson breaks into the top ten in tenth place with a 6,4 from her racing on Friday.
As the Laser and Laser Radial classes enjoy a layday on Saturday, the 470 men’s and women’s fleets will finally get their regatta underway, with the Star and Tornado classes also returning to action.
Racing at the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Cascais, Portugal, continues through until Friday 13 July.
Results after Day 4:
Tornado (after 6 races)
1. Fernando Echavarri-Anton Paz, Esp (25pts)
2. Carolijn Brouwer-Sebastien Godefroid, Bel (29pts)
3. Xavier Revil-Christophe Espagnon, Fra (35pts)
Selected GBR
5. Leigh McMillan-Will Howden (38pts)
9. Andy Walsh-Ed Barney (53pts)
15. Rob Wilson-Mark Bulkeley (64pts)
Star (after 6 races)
1. Robert Scheidt-Bruno Prada, Bra (8pts)
2. Xavier Rohart-Pascal Rambeau, Fra (10pts)
3. Iain Percy-Andrew Simpson, GBR (12pts)
Laser Radial (after 6 races)
1. Lijia Xu, Chn (13pts)
2. Tania Elias Calles Wolf, Mex (13pts)
3. Sophie de Turckheim, Fra (24pts)
Selected GBR
10. Charlotte Dobson (35pts)
15. Lizzie Vickers (43pts)
22. Alison Young (56pts)
Laser (after 6 races)
1. Tom Slingsby, Aus (6pts)
2. Thomas Le Breton, Fra (19pts)
3. Paul Goodison, GBR (19pts)
Selected GBR
42. Mark Powell (70pts)
51. Nick Thompson (82pts)
60. Robert Godwin (89pts)
Yngling (after 4 races)
1. Sarah Ayton-Sarah Webb-Pippa Wilson, GBR (12pts)
2. Shirley Robertson-Annie Lush-Lucy Macgregor, GBR (16pts)
3. Sally Barkow-Carrie Howe-Debbie Capozzi, USA (16pts)
Selected GBR
16. Victoria Rawlinson-Emma Rawlinson-Sue Monson (71pts)
Finn (after 3 races)
1. Jonas Hogh-Christensen, Den (7pts)
2. Chris Cook, Can (10pts)
3. Ed Wright, GBR (10pts)
Selected GBR
11. Chris Brittle (22pts)
15. Giles Scott (29pts)
27. Ed Greig (45pts)
28. Mark Andrews (48pts)
RS:X Women (after 2 races)
1. Zofia Klepacka, Pol (2pts)
2. Alessandra Sensini, Ita (2pts)
3. Marina Alabau, Esp (7pts)
Selected GBR
7. Bryony Shaw (8pts)
18. Lucy Horwood (22pts)
48. Beth Williamson (46pts)
RS:X Men
1. Przemyslaw Miarczynski, Pol (2pts)
2. Richard Stauffacher, Sui (3pts)
3. Shahar Zubari, Isr (4pts)
Selected GBR
5. Nick Dempsey (5pts)
35. Leo McCallin (26pts)
68. Daniel Skudder (45pts)
49er
No overall results available due to incomplete race schedule