| ATHENS, GREECE-(20-8-2003) The Athens Olympic sailing venue was in full flow this
morning when all eleven disciplines left the dock to test the Olympic
sailing waters. Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy and crewman Steve Mitchell
liked their first taste of the Olympic waters and returned to shore as early
event leaders.
In a star cast line up which includes the 1996 Olympic gold medallist and
2000 Olympic bronze medallist Torben Grael and Americas' Cup sailor Paul
Cayard, Team Percy/Mitchell scored a first and a fourth place to give them
the overnight lead going into the second day of racing.
Fellow Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie also had a successful day,
although admitting that he was `a little conservative on the start of the
first race and ended up playing catch up`, he none the less 'caught up'
scoring a second and a sixth to put him in third place overall behind Enver
Adakan of Turkey and Rafael Trujillo of Spain.
Ainslie commented that `the conditions in Athens are as hard if not harder
than Sydney and added to that the heat factor it is definitely a difficult
event to try and master.`
Sydney teammate and fellow gold medallist Shirley Robertson, sailing in the
Yngling class with team mates Sarah Webb and Sarah Ayton scored a tenth and
a fourth place to finish the day in sixth place overall.
Team GBR 49er sailors Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith also made a good
start to the regatta. After a short postponement on shore waiting for the
Mistral windsurfers to finish racing on their course, they sailed three
races in a range of conditions from 8 - 18 knots and at the end of the first
day are lying in fifth place overall.
The event continues through until the 28 August. The official event website
is www.athens2004.com and further information on
the Team GBR sailors, as well as event photo's, can be found on the RYA
website www.rya.org.uk .
Results, after day 1
Finn
1, Enver Adakan, TUR (4,1) 5 pts
2, Rafael Trujillo, ESP (6,2) 8 pts
3, Ben Ainslie, GBR (2,6) 8 pts
49er
1, Timothy Wadlow/Peter Spaulding, USA (6,3,3) 12 pts
2, Piero Sibelo/Gianfranco Sibelo, ITA (2,6,6) 14 pts
3, Christoffer Sundby/Frode Bovim, NOR (7,7,1) 15 pts
GBR
5, Paul Brotherton/Mark Asquith (10,2,7) 19 pts
Star
1, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell, GBR (1,4) 5 pts
2, Peter Bromby/Lee White, BER (6,1) 7 pts
3, Serge Kats/Jean-Pierre Martens, NED (4,6) 10 pts
Yngling
1, Ruslana Taran/Svitlana Matevusheva/Ganna Kalinina, UKR (1,2) 3 pts
2, Hannah Swett/Joan Touchette/Melissa Purdy, USA (3,1) 4 pts
3, Antonia Thies/Annemieke Bes/Petronella De Jong, NED (4,8) 12 pts
GBR
6, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Webb/Sarah Ayton (10,4) 14 pts
470 W
1, Sofia Bekatorou/Emilia Tsoulfa, GRE (1,3) 4 pts
2, Vesna Dekleva/Klara Maucec, SLO (2,10) 12 pts
3, Susanne Ward/Michaela Ward, DEN (3,11) 14 pts
GBR
14, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson (OCS,4) 28 pts
470 M
1, Alvaro Marinho/Miguel Nunes, POR (1,4) 5 pts
2, Kristian Kjaergaard/Mads Moeller, DEN (2,9) 11 pts
3, Gideon Kliger/Ehud Gal, ISR (8,3) 11 pts
GBR
6, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield (7,12) 19 pts
Laser
1, Daniel Birgmark, SWE (1,8) 9 pts
2, Vasilij Zbogar, SLO (12,1) 13 pts
3, Mate Arapov, CRO (8,6) 14 pts
GBR
5, Paul Goodison (6,9) 15 pts
Mistral M
1, Joeri Van Dihk, NED (2,2) 4 pts
2, Jon-Paul Tobin, NZL (1,6) 7 pts
3, Ricardo Santos, BRA (7,1) 8 pts
GBR
12, Nick Dempsey (17,9) 26 pts
Mistral W
1, Alessandra Sensini, ITA (1) 1 pts
2, Lee Lai Shan, HKG (2) 2 pts
3, Allison Shreeve, AUS (3) pts
GBR
9, Natasha Sturges (9) 9 pts
Europe
1, Siren Sundby, NOR (2,6) 8 pts
2, Lenka Smidova, CZE (4,7) 11 pts
3, Carolijn Brouwer, NED (9,3) 12 pts
GBR
17, Andrea Brewster (13,19) 32 pts
Tornado
1, Darren Bundock/John Forbes, AUS (1,1) 2 pts
2, Santiago Raul Lange/Carlos Mauricio Espinola, ARG (2,2) 4 pts
3, Roman Hagara/Hans-Peter Steinacher, AUT (3,3) 6 pts
GBR
9, Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley (6,14) 20 pts
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