Sydney 2000 - Olympic Sailing Day Nine

by Editor 25 Sep 2000 09:09 BST

Silver for Barker and Hiscocks !

Great Britain has a new pair of Olympic Silver Medallists. Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks, Team GB's 49er representatives held their nerves in the final race showdown of the 16 race Olympic series, finishing third across the line to win the Olympic Silver medal by four points from brothers Jonathan and Charlie McKee (USA).

With no other medals being decided today and the Gold medal already wrapped up by Thomas Johanson and Jyrki Jarvi (Finland), all the focus on the water revolved around course area B and the gripping final to decide which nation would win Silver and who would take home the Bronze.

Barker and Hiscocks sailed out to the final race from Rushcutters Bay in the provisional Silver medal position with the McKee brothers, both Olympic medallists in other classes, six points behind and gunning for them. If the McKee's won the race, the British pair could not afford to finish lower than sixth in a fleet brimming with European and world champions.

The first start of the day in a 10-knot breeze was recalled but Ian and Simon came cleanly off the line on the second attempt and held third position at the windward mark with the USA crew fifth.

Helmsman and Flying Dutchman Gold Medallist Jonathan McKee managed to gain a place downwind and slide inside the British pair at the leeward mark with Barker holding fourth. As the breeze shifted on the next beat Ian dropped to sixth while their rivals attacked the Spanish world champions for the lead, some 40 seconds in front. However, Barker slowly ground away through the fleet on the final windward leg to the finish to move up to third while Jonathan and Charlie McKee led the fleet across the line for the final time.

Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks had done enough, the 49er class Olympic Silver medal belonged to Great Britain. " We knew we had to keep our eyes open and keep level heads and make the best of the situation. The American's did the same but a bit better as they won the race but not enough to take the Silver medal from us," commented Ian on stepping ashore to applause from the British team.

Reflecting on his tactics for the day Ian added: "I knew there was no point mucking about at the start and trying anything silly. You only have a 40% chance of pulling anything off in that situation and that would have been no good today. I wanted to make sure we had a comfortable position in the race, stay calm and not make any mistakes".

Ian and Simon will collect their medals this evening on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in the first of two sailing medal ceremonies.

Meanwhile, Iain Percy extended his lead in the Finn class over 1996 Olympic champion Mateusz Kusnierewicz (Poland) to ten points after a ninth and second in series races three and four on course area D inside Sydney Heads. 1996 Olympic Silver Medallist Sebastien Godefroid (Belguim) has moved up to third with seven races left to sail before Percy will know if he is to be Great Britain's first Olympic medallist in the men's single-handed discipline since 1952.

Sailing alongside the Finn's, Ian Walker and Mark Covell kept their hand in the Star class competition after a twelfth and seventh in their third and fourth races. They are now sixth overall while 1992 Finn Gold Medallist Jose Maria van der Ploeg and crew Rafael Trujillo (Spain) have a slender two point lead over 1996 Gold Medallist's Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira (Brazil). "It was very tough out there again today and especially under the cliffs (of North Head) with a North East breeze but I'm reasonably pleased with the way we sailed. Most importantly, we kept out cool and didn't give up," commented Walker, a Silver medallist in the 470 class. "We're still right in with a shout, it's early days yet," added crewman Mark Covell.

Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield are set for a final race "all or nothing" showdown in the men's 470 class on Wednesday as they sit in fifth overall, seven points off the Bronze medal position which is currently held by 1996 Gold Medallists Igor Matvienko and Evhen Braslavets (Ukraine).

49er Final Results: (16 races, 2 discards)

Pos	Nation	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15	R16	Pts
1	FIN	Thomas Johanson	Jyrki Jarvi	2	7	2	-12	3	4	10	6	2	4	7	2	3	1	2	-13	45
2	GBR	Ian Barker	Simon Hiscocks	-13	5	6	-10	6	2	4	2	9	5	4	4	5	4	1	3	57
3	USA	Jonathan McKee	Charlie McKee	6	3	5	1	5	-14	-13	1	3	3	1	11	7	6	11	1	63
4	ESP	Santiago Lopez-Vazquez	Javier de la Plaza	1	8	-11	8	4	3	1	11	11	-18	5	1	1	-12	10	4	75
5	GER	Marcus Baur	Philip Barth	5	1	4	3	-11	-12	11	5	6	9	6	6	10	3	6	6	75
6	AUS	Chris Nicholson	Daniel Phillips	11	11	1	-14	1	1	12	3	1	6	-17	10	8	5	9	7	79

Finn: (after 4 races, no discard)

Pos	Nation	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1	GBR	Iain Percy	2	1	9	2	14
2	POL	Mateusz Kusznierewicz	1	4	11	8	24
3	BEL	Sebastien Gobefroid	13	3	10	1	27
4	SWE	Fredrik Loof	17	5	1	6	29
5	FRA	Xavier Rohart	11	11	4	3	29
6	TUR	Ali Enver Adakan	5	7	17	7	36

Star: (after 4 races, no discard)

Pos	Nation	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1	ESP	Jose Maria van der Ploeg	Rafael Trujillo	2	4	8	3	17
2	BRA	Torben Grael	Marcelo Ferreira	3	13	1	2	19
3	AUS	Colin Beashel	David Giles	8	8	6	1	23
4	ITA	Ferdinando Colaninno	Pietro D'Ali	9	2	9	6	26
5	BER	Lee White	Peter Bromby	4	10	3	9	26
6	GBR	Ian Walker	Mark Covell	1	9	12	7	29

Men's 470: (after 10 races, 2 discards)

Pos	Nation	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Pts
1	AUS	Mark Turnbull	Tom Kong	5	1	2	-14	7	10	8	1	2	-12	36
2	USA	Paul Foerster	Bob Merrick	8	9	4	11	1	1	6	-12	-13	1	41
3	UKR	Evhen Braslavets	Igor Matvienko	2	5	-30	-30	6	2	4	9	11	6	45
4	ARG	Javier Conte	Juan de la Fuente	11	6	8	5	-30	6	3	7	1	-18	47
5	GBR	Nicholas Rogers	Joe Glanfield	4	3	17	1	8	-18	-18	6	6	7	52
6	POR	Miguel Nunes	Alvaro Marinho	1	4	6	7	5	9	5	15	-25	-16	52