| ATHENS, GREECE-(23-8-2003) The fourth day of racing at the Pre-Olympic test event
proved fruitful for RYA Team GBR. Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie
continues to lead the Finn class, fellow Olympic gold medallist Shirley
Robertson moved up into silver medal position in the Yngling class and young
guns Leigh McMillan and Mark Bulkeley are currently in bronze medal position
in the Tornado class.
After a day off yesterday, Ainslie returned to form today in the Finn class,
scoring a second and a sixth to maintain his overall lead from Guillaume
Florent of France. Sebastien Godefroid, the 1996 Olympic silver medallist
from Belgium is currently in third place overall.
Ainslie explained how a little luck helped him, `one of our races today was
abandoned and I was pretty lucky, I think I was over the line at the start
but decided to carry on anyway and chance it, so I was pretty relieved when
they abandoned the race.` He continued, `so far it is going well for me and
a second and a sixth was a good day but it doesn't take much in these
conditions for it all to go wrong so I will have to keep working hard to
stay in the game.`
Out on the Tornado course young British sailors Leigh McMillan and Mark
Bulkeley were enjoying the conditions. Although the wind was ranging from
6-18 knots and gusting 20 knots at times, they managed to play the shifts
well in the first race of the day and round the first mark just in front of
Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen of Holland, this remained the order of the
race and McMillan and Bulkeley managed to extend their lead to take their
first race win of the regatta.
To prove it was not a fluke result, they remained on top of the game in the
second race and crossed the finish line second, which gave them a big boost
up the leader board from ninth into bronze medal position. Olympic silver
medallists Darren Bundock and John Forbes from Australia currently lead the
class by ten points from Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola of Argentina.
A delighted McMillan said, `we definitely feel like we are starting to get
to grips with the venue and understanding what happens with the wind here,
although I don't think anyone will ever completely understand it. We are
delighted with how we sailed today, it is the nature of the sport that some
days you are up and some days you are down, but today was definitely an 'up
day' for us`.
Sydney Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson sailing with Sarah Webb and
Sarah Ayton, also had a good day and posted a second and a fourth to move up
into second place overall. Americans Hannah Swett, Joan Touchette and
Melissa Purdy currently lead the fleet by ten points.
Team GBR sailors Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield returned to form in the
second race of the day in the men's 470 fleet, they followed up a twelfth in
the first race with their first race win of the regatta and are currently
lying in fourth place overall. An eighth place in the second race for fellow
team GBR 470 sailors Christina Bassadone and Katherine Hopson saw them move
into sixth place overall.
Tomorrow sees racing for the 470 men and women, Star, Yngling and Finn,
whilst all the other classes enjoy a lay day. Racing concludes on the 28
August.
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