Australian Sailing Team at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres - Day 5

Bronze medal for Australian Paralympic Sonar crew

Australian Sailing's Colin Harrison, Jonathan Harris and Russell Boaden won Australia's first medal at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères on Friday, when they took out bronze in the Paralympic Sonar medal race. Gold went to the crews from Great Britain, silver to France.

A British protest over the French team ensured the gold and silver medals were decided in the Jury Room as the two bullets secured by the French were scored a discretionary 20% penalty. The French came away with a pair of 3DPI scores whilst the Britons second and fourth meant they took gold.

This did not affect third place of the Australians, who were pleased with their result as dual Paralympian Colin Harrison confirmed after the race:

"It's always good to finish on the podium, especially in this fleet and we are very happy with that. We'd like to be a little bit higher up but that's going to take time and we'll keep chipping away until we get there."

In the eight boat fleet battles were tight over the week and going into the final medal race there was very little room for error as four points separated the top four racers with the Australians in third position.

As Colin Harris explained: "The competition in our event is always very tight. There's six to eight countries which always fight for the podium spots and every team here has either won a gold medal in the Paralympic Games or World Championships so it's a very tough fleet, always close and always good fun. Today it all came down to the last race where we had four teams including ours in contention for the podium places."

It was a first time racing experience for the Australian Sonar Team in Hyères, which they quite enjoyed:

"It was our first time racing in Hyères and it was exciting to come to a new venue and get to grips with all the challenges a new location brings. It's a fantastic venue and we've really enjoyed the whole week."

The Australian team will race next at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in the Netherlands (20-24 May 2014) before they return back to Australia to train in preparation for the IFDS World Championships in August.

The High Liner Foods IFDS Worlds which take place in Nova Scoatia, Canada from 15-24 August 2014 serve as the first qualification regatta for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition.

Belcher and Ryan gold medal contenders for Medal Races

On the penultimate day the medal race places and early victories were decided across the Olympic events at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères. The Australian Sailing Team will be going into Saturday's medal races as the leader in both the 470M as well as the Nacra17 with Tom Burton currently in second place in the Laser fleet.

After a delayed start, an easterly 10-12 knot breeze and a choppy sea meant for close calls and tense racing on the race courses as sailors pushed for positions going into the final day.

Men's 470

Mat Belcher (QLD) and Will Ryan (QLD) have a solid advantage in the Men's 470. Their lead stands at 17 points over the Greek Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis before the double points, 10-boat Medal Race. The Australians obliterated the opposition, taking the first bullet of the day by 44 seconds and popped up with a 28 second victory in the final race of the series to leave them in a good position before the Medal Race.

Nacra 17

It'll be all to play for in the Nacra 17 with plenty of permutations possible on the final day. Australian Sailing Team's Darren Bundock (NSW) and Nina Curtis (NSW) will enter the Medal Race with a seven-point advantage World Champion Billy Besson and Marie Riou (FRA) and a nine-point lead over Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri (ITA). The French and Italian teams received black flag penalties for starting prematurely on the first race of the day whilst the Aussies sailed consistently across the day with a 7-4-5 score line.

With 14 points splitting the third place Italians and Euan McNicol (NSW) and Lucinda Whitty (NSW) in seventh it will be intriguing action in the Nacra 17 Medal Race.Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin just missed out of the medal race, finishing 12th overall.

Laser

Three points separate leading New Zealander Andy Maloney and Australian Sailing's Tom Burton (NSW) heading into the Laser Medal Race. Both sailors used up their discard on the penultimate day of racing as Maloney loses a 20th and Burton a black flag starting disqualification.

With a breakage in the last race Matt Wearn (WA) dropped back into overall 13th and just missed out on the medal race together with Squad mate Ashley Brunning (NSW) in 12th. Finishing three Laser boats in the top 15 nevertheless continues to show the strength of the Australian Laser squad under coach and Sydney Olympic bronze medallist Michael Blackburn. Hear what Matt Wearn had to say after the race here.

49er

It was a challenging day for Olympic Champions Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) when were hit by another boat resulting in capsize and injury to Nathan that caused them to abandon Friday's racing. A successful appeal for redress awarded them average points, putting them into overall fifth before the medal race.

Iain Jensen recalls what happened: "It was a pretty windy and wavy day. We did the first race and we came out with a tenth, which was ok. In the second race we went a bit better and were third around the top mark when the bow of a give-way boat hit Nathan in the side and knocked him off the back and we capsized. It was a big hit on Nathan, so to make sure that he was ok we packed up and finished racing. He's been seeing our team physio and doctor most of the afternoon but hopefully should be right to sail the medal race."

Laser Radial Ashley Stoddart (QLD) will be racing the medal race from sixth position – a result the twenty year old is stoked about: "I'm pretty stoked about how I've been going and I think it's a bonus to be in the medal race. If I can move forward it would be great but I'm also just happy about how I've been sailing."

49erFX

London Olympic Silver medallist Olivia Price (NSW) with new partner Eliza Solly (VIC) just missed out of the medal race and finished overall eleventh, despite posting top ten results (6, 2, 9) in Friday's racing.

As Price said after racing this was a bit too late to be able to move up the rankings: "We had a bit of a tough week and lost a lot of points earlier in the regatta and left it a bit too late to pull out some top ten results. But we ended up eleventh and just missed out of medal racing tomorrow."

Australian Sailing's Caitlin Elks (WA) and Tess Lloyd (VIC) finished the regatta in 21st.

Finn

In the Finn both Australian Sailing Squad's athletes Jake Lilley (QLD) and Oliver Tweddell (VIC) finished 16th and 19th place respectively.

Medal Race action gets going at 11:00 on Saturday 26 April as racing at the fifth and final regatta of the 2013-2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup series concludes.

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