Draper and Hiscocks champions

The 49er European Championship came to a close today with a controversial 'grand final' result

At the 49er Europeans in Copenhagen, Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks successfully defended their European Championship title. The finals consisted of four short races with the two lowest placed boats being knocked out at the end of each race. Morrison and Rhodes managed to hold on for the first race but were finally knocked out in the second, earning them a seventh place finish overall, while Draper and Hiscocks sailed well in the last four races earning them the much wanted gold.

Draper commented, “Obviously we are really pleased to have won this event for the second year running, but we don’t really feel like we have sailed well enough to be European Champions. We knew from the start it would all come down to the grand final, but it seems like all of the hard work the teams put in just got ignored. Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes went into the final in gold medal position and would have won the event but because of the grand final system all of our points were wiped clean and they ended up in seventh overall. Hopefully the World Championships will be run as a normal event and we can really see who deserves to be at the top of the leader’s board.”

Stevie Morrison explained, “We’re gutted about the results, but we knew from the start that the racing would be held in this format. We can only be pleased with the way that we have sailed at this event and hope to put in a similar performance at the worlds.”

Results:

Pos	Nationality	Sail Number	Helm/Crew
1	GBR	2	Chris Draper, Simon Hiscocks
2	USA	840	Morgan Larson, Pete Spaulding
3	DEN	20	Peter Hansen, Søren Hansen
4	GER	11	Jan Peter Peckolt, Hannes Peckolt
5	ESP	1	Iker Martinez, Xabier Fernandez
6	DEN	7	Allan Nørregaard, Jonatan Persson
7	GBR	9	Stevie Morrison, Ben Rhodes
8	ITA	12	Pietro Sibello, Gianfranco Sibello
9	POL	16	Czajkowski Marcin, Kierkowski Krzysztof
10	UKR	14	Rodion Luka, George Leonchuk