Gold for Ayton and co

Breitling Regatta ends in light winds with Brits also taking four bronzes

Britain’s Olympic sailing hopefuls scooped a total of five medals at the Breitling Regatta which concluded in Medemblik, Holland, on Sunday, with four bronzes coming on a windless last day to add to their gold from Saturday’s Yngling final.

Skandia Team GBR’s medal success came in the Finn class for Ed Wright, for Penny Clark in the Laser Radial, Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes in the 49er and for windsurfer Nick Dempsey in the RS:X men’s event, with Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson having already clinched gold in Saturday evening’s Yngling final.

Only five classes managed to see any action on Sunday’s final day of racing – the heavyweight Finn class was the first to leave the shore, with European Champion Ed Wright sailing a must-win race if he was to make it onto the podium.  In a nail-biting final sailed in extremely light winds, Wright delivered and secured the first of Great Britain’s four bronze medals on Sunday.

Finishing second behind Wright in the Medal Race was New Zealander Dan Slater which was enough to win the gold by three points.

What little breeze there was for the Finn and 470 women’s finals – in which Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark were second to finish in fourth place overall – had shut down by late morning, leading to a lengthy stint on shore and a nerve-racking wait for sailors who had the podium within their sights. Japanese women Wakako Tabata and Naomi Kurita won the Medal race to secure the 470 class win.

By mid-afternoon, the wind conditions had improved enough to attempt racing, but only the 49ers, Stars and Tornados managed to complete their finals.  Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes, in fourth place overnight, left themselves with some work to do after a slow start to the 49er final which saw them reach the windward mark in place last place.

The fleet split on the second upwind leg, with the European Champions’ choice to take the right hand side of the course paying dividends.   They crossed the finish line in second place, which handed them the bronze – their third major regatta medal of the year to add to gold at the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma, and silver at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta in January.

“We’re chuffed with our result,” Morrison enthused, who said he and Rhodes had been unfazed even when they were back in tenth during the final race.

 “Sometimes when you’re behind like that you can read the conditions better than the others who are ahead of you,” Morrison explained.  “It’s a good lesson in keeping your head out of the boat when you’re racing so you can spot the pressure and the shifts.”

Italian brothers Petro and Gianfranco Sibello maintained their grip on the 49er leaderboard and won the gold medal after placing fifth in the Medal Race.

With the Laser, Laser Radials and RS:X windsurfers unable to get racing, the results after Saturday’s races for those classes were confirmed as final.  Nick Dempsey secured bronze in the RS:X men’s event behind Brazilian Ricardo Santos and Hong Kong’s Chi Ho Ho, while Penny Clark’s fondness for Medemblik continued with a bronze for her in the Laser Radial.  She won silver last year, and describes this regatta as “the one which always kick-starts my season!”

Clark was hotly pursued by three other British sailors in her quest for Dutch silverware, with Charlotte Dobson, Andrea Brewster and Laura Baldwin occupying the fourth, fifth and sixth places in the Radial results table.

The Radial class victory went to Belgium sailor Evi van Acker who recoverd from a black flag in the tenth race to score a fourth and a seventh.

Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson set the standard for British sailors winning gold in the Yngling class on Saturday and hitting form in time for the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Cascais, Portugal, which get underway in just over a month’s time.

Since forming as a trio last autumn, Ayton, Webb and Wilson have consistently reached the podium at every event they’ve raced in, but on Saturday in Medemblik they scored their first gold together, and in doing so boosted Ayton’s enviable track record of placing within the top seven at every regatta she’s helmed in following the Athens Olympics.

The Skandia Team GBR sailors went into the final medal race, held on Saturday evening, in pole position in spite of picking up a black flag amongst their three race results earlier in the day.  In the final ten-boat showdown they were first to the first windward mark, but had two Dutch boats ahead of them by the time they reached the windward mark for the second time.

Some good downwind pace pulled them back one place, and ‘Team Mirabaud’ finished the medal race in second place, which handed them the gold medal with a 16 point margin over Dutch trio Mandy Mulder, Brechtje vd Werf and Marije Kampen, who crossed first ahead of the Brits in the final

In the 470 Mens class British sailors Nick Rogers and Joe Glandfield finished with a flurry with a 7,1,5,2 but earlier results left them in fifth overall. Italians Gabrio Zandona and Andrew Trani won gold with an impressive 35 point margin over Bonnard brothers from France.

With no racing in the Laser class, European Champion Paul Goodison had no opportunity to improve on his fourth place on the leaderboard.  Leigh McMillan and Will Howden finished eighth overall in the Tornado class, with a ninth in their medal race, while Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson finished their medal race in tenth to end the regatta in ninth place overall.

The 19 boat Star fleet was won by Italians Diego Negri and Luigi Viale, with the silver going to Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki just one point adrift.

Frenchmen Xavier Revil and Christophe Espagnon sailed a convincing regatta to take the top spot in the Tornado class by a big 24 point margin.

470 Men

470 Women

49er

Tornado

Star

Yngling

Finn

Laser

Laser Radial

RS:X Men

RS:X Women