| ATHENS, GREECE-(21-8-2003) Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie blew away the
competition on the Olympic sailing waters today in the Finn class, after
scoring two race wins he leads the class after two days of racing.
In light and shifty conditions ranging from 4-8 knots, Ainslie started well
and went on to win the first race by over a minute from the 1996 Olympic
silver medallist Sebastien Godefroid of Belgium. Ainslie repeated this form
in the second race and added another race win to his score line, giving him
the overall lead from Godefroid by thirteen points.
Ainslie explained his tactics for the day, `Yesterday I started in the
middle of the line and didn't really give myself any options unless you get
it spot on, so I decided to start one end or the other and it seemed to give
me a little more room after the start to work the shifts better. Some days
it all clicks and other days it doesn't, but today was a good day!`
The 49ers were also experiencing tricky conditions and the first race was
abandoned due to the large wind shifts and holes in the breeze. One race was
completed and team GBR sailors Paul Brotherton and crew Mark Asquith sailed
a good race to finish in second place behind Chris Nicholson and Gary Boyd
of Australia. This result moves them up into second place overall behind the
Italian pairing of Piero Sibelo and Gianfranco Sibelo.
Brotherton commented, `Today was really bouncy and you just had to take
everything offered to you to stay in the game. The key is not to take it too
seriously when you get good luck and win a race by a long way, and don't
take it to seriously when you get shut out the back door. You have to ride
with the punches, especially on our course.`
Out on the Star course things didn't quite roll the way Olympic gold
medallist Iain Percy may have liked. Percy got caught the wrong side of a
shift which he was unable to recover from, finishing in seventeenth place
overall, with the race win going to double Olympic medallist Torben Grael
sailing with Marcelo Ferreira.
Percy was back up to speed in the second race finishing in sixth place
leaving him, and crewman Steve Mitchell, in seventh place overall at the end
of day two.
Out on the 470 course Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield came back from a bad
start after they returned across the line for fear of being over the start
line. They rounded the first mark in 29th position and sailed well to finish
the race in sixth place overall. Another sixth place in the second race
moved them up the leader board into fourth place overall and tied on even
points with third placed Gideon Kliger and Ehud Gal of Israel.
In the 470 women's fleet Team GBR sailors Christina Bassadone and Katherine
Hopson scored their best result of the regatta so far, a third place in the
second race of the day, to climb to tenth place overall.
Bassadone expressed her thoughts on the regatta, `On our course today we had
everything from 4-13 knots and swinging through 30 degrees. This event is
not going to be a boat speed regatta. It is so inconsistent that it is
better to be head out of the boat looking at the wind pressure coming down
the course and it is certainly not over until it's over, so you have to keep
working it until the very end.`
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 2
Finn
1, Ben Ainslie, GBR (2,6,1,1) 10 pts
2, Sebastien Godefroid, BEL (11,7,2,3) 23 pts
3, Karlo Kuret, CRO (5,5,7,9) 26 pts
49er
1, Piero Sibelo/Gianfranco Sibelo, ITA (2,6,6,4) 18 pts
2, Paul Brotherton/Mark Asquith, GBR (10,2,7,2) 21 pts
3, Timothy Wadlow/Peter Spaulding, USA (6,3,3,12) 24 pts
Star
1, Peter Bromby/Lee White, BER (6,1,3,4) 14 pts
2, Marc Aurel Pickel/Anton Kolb, GER (2,9,4,5) 20 pts
3, Serge Kats/Jean-Pierre Martens, NED (4,6,2,9) 21 pts
GBR
7, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell (1,4,17,6) 28 pts
Yngling (results after four races are not available at this time)
1, Hannah Swett/Joan Touchette/Melissa Purdy, USA (3,1,2) 6 pts
2, Ruslana Taran/Svitlana Matevusheva/Ganna Kalinina, UKR (1,2,6) 9 pts
3, Kristin Wagner/Anna Hoell/Veronika Lochbrunner, GER (7,7,5) 19 pts
GBR
8, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Webb/Sarah Ayton (10,4,9) 23 pts
470 Women
1, Susanne Ward/Michaela Ward, DEN (3,11,2,10) 26 pts
2, Sofia Bekatorou/Emilia Tsoulfa, GRE (1,3,OCS,2) 30 pts
3, Shelley Hesson/Linda Dickson, NZL (4,14,1,15) 34 pts
GBR
10, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson (OCS,4,16,3) 47 pts
470 Men
1, Johan Molund/Martin Andersson, SWE (4,7,3,10) 24 pts
2, Alvaro Marinho/Miguel Nunes, POR (1,4,9,11) 25 pts
3, Gideon Kliger/Ehud Gal, ISR (8,3,4,16) 31 pts
GBR
4, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield (7,12,6,6) 31 pts
Laser - lay day
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 Men - lay day
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 Women - lay day
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 - lay day
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 - lay day
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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