Today in Athens...

Four more classes have their first races at the Olympics

In addition to the Finn, 470s and Yngling classes that got underway yesterday, today - day two of the Athens Olympic Games - sees racing get underway for the Laser, Europe and Mistral men and women’s classes too.

Paul Goodison, Ben Ainslie’s training partner from Sydney, will sail his first day in the Laser class today, the same class that brought gold to Great Britain in 2000. Goodison won the Olympic trials in April and since then has won a host of medals including a silver medal at the Laser European Championships and bronze medals at both Keil and Hyeres Olympic Class Regattas. Goodison will have tough competition in this class in the form of seven times world champion Robert Scheidt of Brazil, who also has a gold and a silver medal in this discipline, and the 2000 Olympic bronze medallist Michael Blackburn of Australia.

The Europe class, the single-handed women’s dinghy, that Shirley Robertson won gold in at Sydney, also gets underway today. Young Europe sailor Laura Baldwin, who only took up competitive racing five years ago, has continued her steady climb towards the top of the fleet. Her highlight of the year was finishing sixth at Hyeres Olympic Class Week and she will be keen to make her mark in Athens. There will be strong competition from double world champion Siren Sundby of Norway as well as Sari Multala of Finland.

Today also sees the first outing in the windsurfing disciplines, with both the Mistral men and women competing. Nick Dempsey, who finished 16th in Sydney, is four years wiser and fitter and has had a good season after finishing fifth at the 2004 world championships. He will be going for gold in Athens and will be facing tough competition from 1996 Olympic gold medallist and national hero Nikolaos Kaklamanakis and current world champion Julien Bontemps of France.

Natasha Sturges will be representing Great Britain in the women’s Mistral fleet. Sturges won silver at the 2002 European championships and a recent fifth place at SPA Olympic Classes Regatta, shows she is set to peak in Athens. The competition will come from the 1992 Olympic gold medallist Barbara Kendall, who also won Olympic medals in 1996 and 2000, and current world champion Alessandra Sensini of Italy.

Racing is scheduled to get underway at 13:00 (local time) and the weather forecast is for a day of tricky conditions which are predicted to be light and shifty between four to ten knots in the sea breeze, although the Meltemi wind could come in with speeds ranging from 10-18 knots. There is also a chance that these two winds could challenge each other which could produce calm patches at times.