| ATHENS, GREECE-(25-8-2003) Only two classes managed to get racing in at the
Pre-Olympic Test Event due to light and shifty winds with many of the other
Olympic classes forced to abandon racing for the day.
Team GBR Tornado sailors Leigh McMillan and Mark Bulkeley managed to get
their heads around the tricky conditions to score a sixth place which,
although just drops them out of the medals into fourth place, was a great
result considering it was a day that anything could have happened and many
sailors came off the water a lot worse off.
McMillan explained the day, `There is no doubt that it has been a difficult
day today, the wind has been coming from all directions and it has just been
a case of trying to stick in there. We are pleased with a sixth as many of
the other top sailors finished behind us and we made some good gains in the
overall scores and are only one point off third place.`
The only other class to race was the Star class that sailed one race, in
again what were difficult conditions. The fleet turned inside out on many
occasions and Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy and crew Steve Mitchell went
from sixth to fourth to eventually cross the line in tenth place, leaving
them in ninth position overall. Double Olympic medallist Torben Grael,
sailing with Marcelo Ferreira of Brazil, still managed to hold on to a
four-point lead.
In many other classes races were attempted and then abandoned. This was the
case in the Finn class who managed to get a race started before the wind
changed direction completely and the race officer was forced to abandon.
Unfortunately for Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie, before the race was
out he managed to pick up a yellow flag for infringing 'rule 42', which
prevents a sailor from moving their body to propel the boat. If Ainslie gets
penalised with a second yellow flag during the rest of the regatta he will
be disqualified from that race and should he get a third one he will be
disqualified from the whole event.
Tomorrow sees racing in all of the Olympic classes with the exception of the
Star class and the event concludes on the 28 August, with the Star, Yngling,
Finn and 470 classes due to complete the regatta on the 27 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 .
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