49ers conclude

Draper and Hiscocks knocked down to third as Spanish team win reports Andrew Preece in Athens

Torben Grael must have felt like a hunted man when the Star fleet came out to race today. The weather forecast was for a seven or eight knot sea breeze and when it arrived after a short postponement for the first time for a few days, it was relatively steady. Good news for Grael trying to cement an already imperious performance, bad news for the teams looking to make big points gains and get back into the fight for gold.

So they needed another tactic and that came when any of the boats in podium contention came within striking distance of the Brazilian. It wasn’t out and out war but every time they could, the Canadians - Ross Macdonald and Mike Wolfs - and the Americans - Paul Cayard and Phil Trinter - tried to make life hard for the Brazilians by tacking on them whenever it suited their overall game plan. It was effective: the Brazilians were driven back to 11th in Race 9, their worst result, and in Race 10 Paul Cayard tried a quick skirmish on the start line. But for most of the race Grael and Marcelo Ferreira were hovering in fourth position, enough to secure the Gold by six points with a race to spare.

Grael was one of the few sailors competing here to be happy in the difficult conditions. "We were brought up sailing in a bay in Brazil where the wind is very shifty so when we go to places where the wind is shifty we feel comfortable," he said afterwards. Grael became a true Olympic champion when he matched the British Athens medal haul adding the gold to his gold, silver and two bronze medals won previously in the Star and Soling classes.

Behind the Brazilians the plot was getting increasingly complex. Ross Macdonald led most of Race 10 but then lost it on the finish line to France which secured Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau’s position in second ahead of Macdonald dropping the Americans to fourth. All things being equal there are three boats fighting for the two remaining podium places with France on 47 points, Canada on 49.2 points and America on 56. Paul Cayard will be hoping that Canada and France get sidetracked by the fight for silver and let him in via the back door.

For Britain Iain Percy professed to be "****ing gutted". The prospect of any medal went out of the door when they were stopped dead on the start line with the fleet sailing away after they had to loop around the pin end boat as they crossed the start line early. It was, confided Percy, a "schoolboy error". They never rallied and with the placings further up the table dictating that the British would need to finish ninth or higher to have any mathematical chance of securing a medal, the British hopes dwindled on the fading breeze.

Equally frustrated were the British 49er sailors Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks. World champions a year ago with two races to spare, European champions this year, this was a team that came to Athens with the potential, the form and the desire not just to medal but to top the table. But the writing was on the wall a couple of days ago when the Spanish team began to look powerful as they had a few months ago in waters just a few miles from the sailing venue when they won the 2004 49er World Championship. The Spanish proved able to hang on to the British when it was windy and seemed much more relaxed when it was light. And on the final day when they started badly they did enough to finish seventh and tie up the Gold medal.

But while silver would have been some consolation for Britain, they lost out on that fight when the Ukrainians, Rodion Luka and George Leonchuk, wrestled a third place out of the light wind final race. The Ukrainians have been sailing the 49er almost since its inception and in the early days they were frequent casualties. They have steadily climbed the rankings in the last five years and were so delighted with Silver that they did a tail-stand capsize in front of the dockside as they came in for final measurement.

"We really came here to win the gold medal since we joined as a team and that is what it has all been about so we are pretty disappointed," said Chris Draper who could hardly speak at the press conference. "But Simon [Hiscocks] and Sparky [Team GB sailing Team Leader Stephen Park] and everyone keeps saying so many people have come here and not won medals and they have been saying that we deserved to and should be proud of what we have done."

But if the Stars and 49ers ended up being almost foregone conclusions at Gold medal level going into the final race, the Tornados - like the Men’s and Women’s boards - will go to the wire.

The Americans were on fire today and fired home a first and a second to take them to within three points of the lead while the Austrians managed a two and a five to retain the lead they gained with a great day yesterday. Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola had a good day in the less erratic winds to move into a relatively comfortable Bronze position.

After a 12th in Race 9 the Australians, Darren Bundock and John Forbes, are tied on points with Mitch Booth and Herbert Dercksen and for them unseating the Argentineans in third is probably the realistic prospect. So the Tornados will end with a compelling two-way fight for Gold and a three-way fight for Bronze. Only Hagara at the top has had anything like a consistent series and so the sailing conditions of Saturday - where more of the same is the long-range forecast - may well prove the deciding factor. If it is a lottery like it was yesterday anything could happen. If there is steadiness in strength and direction you wouldn’t bet against Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher.



Results:

	49ER
Pos	Helm	Crew	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15	R16	Tot	Net
1	Iker MARTINEZ	Xavier FERNANDEZ	ESP	3	11	7	5	1	12	2	6	12	1	8	2	8	2	4	7	91	67
2	Rodion LUKA	George LEONCHUK	UKR	4	15	3	7	2	10	7	5	9	5	3	10	6	5	3	3	97	72
3	Chris DRAPER	Simon HISCOCKS	GBR	8	5	6	3	10	8	1	13	11	8	2	4	1	9	6	6	101	77
4	Christoffer SUNDBY	Frode BOVIM	NOR	1	3	9	20/OCS	6	4	13	8	15	11	6	9	11	3	2	2	123	88
5	Tim Wadlow	Pete SPAULDING	USA	7	8	5	20/OCS	9	9	8	3	1	13	7	3	10	11	1	10	125	92
6	Andre FONSECA	Rodrigo DUARTE	BRA	2	4	13	13	3	3	5	12	10	12	5	15	12	10	8	5	132	104
7	Chris NICHOLSON	Gary BOYD	AUS	13	6	15	1	17	18	10	1	7	3	1	17	2	1	20/OCS	11	143	105
8	Thomas JOHANSON	Jukka PIIRAINEN	FIN	14	7	2	9	8	6	9	7	5	6	9	13	14	12	15	4	140	111
9	Marcus BAUR	Max GROY	GER	9	2	1	8	14	16	15	11	16	2	12	6	5	14	20/DNF	1	152	116
10	Nico DELLE-KARTH	Nikolaus RESCH	AUT	5	13	11	6	5	14	6	17	13	4	15	8	13	4	12	8	154	122
11	Marc AUDINEAU	Stephane CHRISTIDIS	FRA	6	10	14	11	16	1	12	14	4	18	11	11	4	8	10	14	164	130
12	Christopher RAST	Christian STEIGER	SUI	11	9	12	2	20/OCS	7	16	16	3	10	10	16	7	16	9	9	173	137
13	Michael HESTBAEK	Dennis DENGSO	DEN	16	17	17	10	7	11	3	15	6	7	17	1	15	6	11	13	172	138
14	Pietro SIBELLO	Gianfranco SIBELLO	ITA	20/DSQ	1	4	12	11	17	4	9	14	15	16	5	9	17	5	16	175	138
15	Kenji NAKAMURA	Masato TAKAKI	JPN	12	14	19	20/OCS	4	2	19	4	2	14	4	7	17	18	14	15	185	146
16	Tom FITZPATRICK	Fraser BROWN	IRL	10	16	10	4	12	5	17	2	17	16	14	14	20/DSQ	7	13	12	189	152
17	Thanassis PACHOUMAS	Vasilios PORTOSALTE	GRE	15	12	8	14	15	13	14	18	8	17	20/DSQ	12	13.4	15	7	20	221	181
18	Marcin CZAJKOWSKI	Krzysztof KIERKOWSKI	POL	20/DSQ	18	16	20/OCS	13	15	11	10	18	9	13	18	3	13	16	17	230	190
19	Malav SHROFF	Sumeet PATEL	IND	17	19	18	15	18	19	18	19	19	19	18	19	20/DNS	19	17	18	292	253

	STAR
Pos	Helm	Crew	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Tot	Net
1	Torben GRAEL	Marcelo FERREIRA	BRA	5	4	1	1	2	5	2	7	11	4	42	31
2	Xavier ROHART	Pascal RAMBEAU	FRA	3	9	6	15	7	2	4	12	3	1	62	47
3	Ross MACDONALD	Mike WOLFS	CAN	7	11	4	3	1	5.2	8	14	8	2	63.2	49.2
4	Paul CAYARD	Phil TRINTER	USA	1	6	15	10	3	6	1	15	6	8	71	56
5	Flavio MARAZZI	Enrico DE MARIA	SUI	10	1	3	7	9	9	12	11	4	7	73	61
6	Francesco BRUNI	Guido VIGNA	ITA	13	5	9	4	16	12	3	8	2	5	77	61
7	Iain PERCY	Steve MITCHELL	GBR	8	3	12	9	6	3	16	5	7	17	86	69
8	Peter BROMBY	Lee WHITE	BER	17	16	8	11	12	10	6	4	1	3	88	71
9	Nicklas HOLM	Claus OLESEN	DEN	4	12	2	2	11	7	5	17	16	14	90	73
10	Roberto BERMUDEZ	Pablo ARRARTE	ESP	2	13	5	6	17	8	13	6	12	15	97	80
11	Leonidas PELEKANAKIS	Georgios KONTOGOURIS	GRE	16	2	10	17	5	14	10	1	9	16	100	83
12	Colin BEASHEL	David GILES	AUS	9	7	18/OCS	5	4	13	11	16	14	6	103	85
13	Fredrik LÖÖF	Anders EKSTRÖM	SWE	15	8	18/OCS	14	10	1	14	2	15	9	106	88
14	Hans SPITZAUER	Andreas HANAKAMP	AUT	12	14	7	16	14	16	9	3	5	11	107	91
15	Mark NEELEMAN	Peter VAN NIEKERK	NED	14	10	14	12	8	4	15	10	17	10	114	97
16	Alexander HAGEN	Jochen WOLFRAM	GER	6	17	13	8	15	11	7	13	13	12	115	98
17	Mark MANSFIELD	Killian COLLINS	IRL	11	15	11	13	13	15	17	9	10	13	127	110

	Tornado
Pos	Helm	Crew	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Tot	Net
1	Roman HAGARA	Hans Peter STEINACHER	AUT	1	3	8	1	14	8	4	1	2	5	47	33
2	John LOVELL	Charlie OGLETREE	USA	2	2	1	6	9	9	6	7	1	2	45	36
3	Santiago LANGE	Carlos ESPINOLA	ARG	7	1	6	5	6	11	5	8	4	3	56	45
4	Darren BUNDOCK	John FORBES	AUS	9	7	-12	11	1	2	3	4	12	1	62	50
5	Mitch BOOTH	Herbert DERCKSEN	NED	11	5	10	4	4	3	1	10	6	7	61	50
6	Olivier BACKES	Laurent VOIRON	FRA	4	12	11	2	5	4	11	5	5	8	67	55
7	Fernando ECHAVARRI	Anton PAZ	ESP	3	4	13	8.8	18/DNF	6	2	6	7	13	80.8	62.8
8	Enrique FIGUEROA	Jorge HERNANDEZ	PUR	5	9	7	8	2	5	9	12	14	10	81	67
9	Andrey KIRILYUK	Valery USHKOV	RUS	15	13	5	10	3	1	7	11	3	17	85	68
10	Franceso MARCOLIN	Edoardo BIANCHI	ITA	18/DNF	6	3	7	11	16	10	2	8	9	90	72
11	Roland GAEBLER	Gunnar STRUCKMANN	GER	6	8	15	3	13	10	13	9	10	11	98	83
12	Iordanis PASCHALIDIS	Christos GAREFIS	GRE	12	10	2	9	10	7	16	13	15	14	108	92
13	Leigh McMILLAN	Mark BULKELEY	GBR	8	14	17	12	7	14	8	3	16	15	114	97
14	Oskar JOHANSSON	John CURTIS	CAN	14	15	4	13	8	12	14	17	17	4	118	101
15	Martin STRANDBERG	Kristian MATTSSON	SWE	10	11	9	14	15	15	15	14	9	12	124	109
16	Diogo CAYOLLA	Nuno BARRETO	POR	18/DNS	16	14	16	12	13	12	15	11	6	133	115
17	Mauricio OLIVEIRA	Joäo Carlos JORDÄO	BRA	13	17	16	15	16	17	17	16	13	16	156	139