Brotherton still got it in him

43 year old comes off coach boat to claim silver at 49er Europeans

After the 17th race for the gold and silver fleet in 16 knots of shifty northern breeze the top ten teams were finally decided at the 49er Europeans in Zadar, Croatia. With a second place in the final race the top podium position went to the Sibello brothers – Pietro and Gianfranco from Italy.

Reunited British crew Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith claimed an impressive silver medal finishing two points ahead of the Austrian team of Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch who completed the top three. This Austrian pairing were coached by Bortherton up to the World Championship in July.

Contesting their first event together in six years after re-forming their partnership, Brotherton and Asquith both insisted they had no result target in mind heading into their first event back. “Totally stoked,” was the 29-year-old Asquith’s initial reaction after Saturday’s medal race, in which the Skandia Team GBR pair finished third to secure the silver.

“I’m really pleased, considering we came here just to assess our training and with no outcome in mind.

“There are plenty of places where can still improve and work on, but it’s great to know that Paul and I are still there.”

Consistency was the key across the range of wind conditions experienced during the six-day event on the Adriatic, and of the 18 races held at the Championships, Brotherton and Asquith picked up just four scores outside the top ten.

The 43-year-old Brotherton, who coached Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson to Beijing Olympic gold in the Yngling, added: “Barring one or two mistakes that we made it’s been a good start to our campaign.

“The great thing about having such a strong squad of 49er sailors in Britain is that we were pretty confident from the training we’d done with them that we weren’t slow and that we could keep pace.

“We’ve had a good range of conditions out here, some good breeze to test us – it’s a great start, but testing and learning is really all this week has been about for us.”

John Pink and Rick Peacock were the only other Skandia Team GBR crew to make the 10-boat final medal race, finishing in ninth overall.

	Sailno	Name	Pts	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15	R16	R17	Fin
1	ITA 3	Pietro Sibello, Gianfranco Sibello	86,0	2	8	6	2	-23	10	10	2	2	2	2	15	-19	9	2	3	7	2
2	GBR 9	Paul Brotherton, Mark Asquith	98,0	4	-7	7	3	1	2	4	3	3	20	4	14	2	2	(dnf)	7	16	3
3	AUT 5	Delle Karth , Nikolaus Leopold Resch	100,0	5	3	6	1	3	5	-15	9	14	9	14	2	18	7	1	(dnf)	1	1
4	FRA 8	Manu DYEN, Stephane Christidis	104,0	7	1	1	1	6	9	-12	1	1	4	-22	8	5	15	17	11	5	8
5	FIN 1060	Lauri Lehtinen, Kalle Bask	115,0	3	1	11	11	13	9	7	-19	10	1	5	1	8	13	9	1	-14	6
6	FRA 1071	Morgan Lagravviere, Yann Rocherieux	124,0	7	5	1	3	2	4	3	8	(bfd)	19	6	6	-21	12	13	13	12	5
7	DEN 1039	Peter Kruger Andersen, Nicolai Thorsell	135,0	6	14	2	10	8	13	8	12	-20	3	-18	17	14	1	8	9	2	4
8	FRA 992	Axel Silvy, Ulysse Hoffmann	137,0	9	3	3	8	9	8	2	-14	10	6	-24	9	16	3	14	6	9	ocs
9	GBR 2	John Pink, Rick Peacock	141,0	12	6	12	9	-14	5	4	11	11	17	10	-22	3	18	3	2	4	7
10	UKR 1081	Rodion Luka, Sergiy Patkovski	147,0	1	8	8	8	4	6	5	7	-13	8	15	7	9	10	10	-21	19	ocs
11	FRA 1070	Julien d'Ortoli, Noe Delpech	128,0	-11	4	4	5	4	1	8	7	6	-21	8	10	20	4	12	14	21
12	CRO 1052	Pavle Kostov, Petar Cupac	132,0	14	2	12	10	2	6	(bfd)	9	8	13	11	5	11	5	7	17	-22
13	ESP 1006	Fedrico Alonso, Arturo Alonso	134,0	5	2	10	4	11	-17	15	13	9	12	-21	12	10	6	6	4	15
14	GBR 1096	David Evans, Simon Hiscocks	149,0	8	4	7	(bfd)	3	11	11	30	2	18	17	-19	12	8	5	5	8
15	DEN 1017	Allan Norregaard, Peter Lang	153,0	11	6	4	6	-19	14	9	1	7	10	7	16	17	23	-24	16	6
16	ITA 1021	Giuseppe Angilella, Pietro Zucchetti	154,0	-25	11	16	12	1	4	3	6	13	14	19	13	1	11	15	15	-20
17	GER 964	L Briesenick-Pudenz, Morten Massmann	159,0	8	10	8	(dsq)	ocs	1	1	8	1	22	13	4	15	21	11	(dsq)	3
18	DEN 1019	Simon Karstoft, Jonathan Bay	174,0	1	13	11	11	(dsq)	23	9	3	4	5	9	20	6	-25	22	19	18
19	POR 1072	Bernardo Freitas, Francisco Andrade	175,0	12	15	9	5	6	-19	10	10	5	16	-23	23	4	20	18	12	10
20	GBR 1042	Richard Mason, Tom Peel	179,0	3	12	5	-22	7	8	14	16	17	23	1	3	22	16	19	(raf)	13
21	GRE 1016	Dionisis Dimou, Michail Pateniotis	183,0	20	-23	13	6	5	3	13	5	12	-24	3	21	13	14	20	18	17
22	POR 989	Jorge Lima, Jose Costa	185,0	6	7	3	13	15	-16	1	5	8	11	-25	25	24	17	16	10	24
23	GER 804	Erik Heil, Thomas Pioessel	186,0	2	9	15	14	24	12	13	(bfd)	3	15	20	11	7	22	-23	8	11
24	USA 1046	Erik Storck, Trevor Moore	203,0	10	10	2	2	13	15	16	20	-25	7	16	18	25	19	4	(raf)	dns
25	GBR 940	James` Peters, Dicken Maclean	243,0	-22	14	18	19	7	11	6	2	19	-25	12	24	23	24	21	20	23
26	GBR 1098	Dylan Fletcher, Alain Sign	143,0	13	-20	15	20	18	18	6	4	9	12	11	1	3	1	1	11	-20
27	GER 810	Julian Ramm, Oliver Lewin	143,0	14	-25	14	24	5	15	14	21	5	1	-16	14	2	2	5	2	5
28	GER 915	Leopold Fricke, Lorenz Huber	146,0	10	11	19	17	-21	19	5	14	14	2	-12	4	6	7	12	3	3
29	GER 971	Tobias Schadewaldt, Hannes Baumann	150,0	16	5	18	7	11	21	22	(dnf)	12	17	7	2	1	-21	6	4	1
30	DEN 981	Emil Toft Nielsen, Simon Toft Nielsen	162,0	4	(ocs)	5	4	9	ocs	7	19	24	5	1	9	11	-18	7	17	7
31	FRA 953	Mathieu Frei, Brice Baisez	188,0	-26	19	17	12	16	2	22	10	26	-23	9	13	9	5	3	15	10
32	EST 1065	Tonis Haavel, Lenart Kivistik	196,0	15	24	-26	19	18	18	18	18	7	13	8	6	7	6	-28	13	6
33	GER 1038	Alexander Goltz, Mathias Gruening	210,0	18	17	22	15	17	3	(ocs)	4	17	6	18	11	21	17	20	-22	4
34	GER 970	Max Lutz, Harniet Lennard	214,0	22	9	24	16	25	26	(bfd)	26	15	3	-20	19	8	4	2	6	9
35	ESP 977	Manuel Jimenez, Fago Lopez	220,0	17	21	10	17	19	7	20	23	(bfd)	8	6	7	18	10	(raf)	19	18
36	POL 1041	Lukasz Przybytek, Krzysztof Kierkowski	221,0	16	13	21	(bfd)	24	ocs	19	raf	dnf	4	3	(dsq)	4	11	4	1	2
37	DEN 980	Niels Joachim Gormsen, Anders Thomsen	234,0	17	16	9	18	10	25	11	21	(bfd)	15	4	12	(dnf)	dnf	16	7	13
38	FRA 993	Vincent Berthez, Sebastien Durand	240,0	-27	15	25	23	12	20	21	16	16	14	15	-22	19	9	11	5	19
39	GER 1040	Max Rieger, Moritz Rieger	242,0	19	26	16	13	8	22	20	15	(bfd)	22	21	10	17	-29	13	12	8
40	ITA 866	Luca Maffessoli, Stefano Petissi	250,0	23	22	-28	25	12	14	12	27	6	10	5	16	-25	16	22	23	17
41	ITA 849	Gianmarco Togni, Filippo Togni	250,0	19	16	14	28	20	7	(bfd)	15	22	16	13	5	15	15	dnf	-26	26
42	ITA 881	Daniel Loperfido, Mateo Gritti	253,0	9	19	24	15	26	30	28	29	(dsq)	-21	17	8	10	3	9	10	16
43	FIN 885	Ilmari Kuusi, Heikki Soininen	255,0	25	18	(bfd)	14	10	12	17	12	bfd	7	28	23	26	14	8	8	(dnf)
44	FRA 800	Cedric Fleury, Louis Claeyssens	256,0	21	20	22	24	22	27	18	25	-29	11	-30	15	13	8	10	9	11
45	CAN 1074	Jonathan Ladha, Daniel Inkpen	287,0	26	30	26	16	17	13	(bfd)	24	21	9	2	18	20	-24	23	21	21
46	RUS 911	Pavel Karachev, Dimitriy Kalyapin	290,0	18	17	(raf)	7	27	24	25	22	16	24	24	3	5	26	(dns)	dnf	12
47	GER 1013	Tom Lange, Tim Lange	292,0	-28	21	21	26	16	16	24	25	18	19	19	-29	27	13	15	18	14
48	RUS 1085	Alexey Chekrygin, Vitlay Russu	303,0	20	23	17	25	25	10	-26	20	15	18	14	25	22	-28	17	24	28
49	GER 914	Jan Hauke Erichsen, Hans Jakob Dethleffsen	311,0	21	27	23	21	15	27	23	13	(bfd)	-35	29	28	12	12	19	16	25
50	POR 846	Pedro Rebelo de Andrade, Davio Aleixo	334,0	24	24	19	18	27	-28	25	17	23	32	-33	20	16	23	29	14	23
51	ITA 867	Ruggero Tita, Nicolo Fasoli	346,0	15	-28	25	20	14	17	17	24	19	31	22	27	30	27	18	(dns)	dnf
52	GER 629	Arne Seemann, Lars Haverland	352,0	27	18	20	23	21	29	21	30	(bfd)	27	-34	17	24	30	25	25	15
53	GBR 644	Max Richardson, Nick Redding	359,0	23	25	-28	21	26	21	2	6	4	30	25	24	32	(dnf)	dns	dnc	dnc
54	IRL 963	Marcus Spillane, Amish Ved	372,0	-29	28	20	27	20	20	16	28	27	20	27	26	29	20	(dns)	dnc	24
55	FIN 828	Joonas Lindahl, Benjamin Gronholm	374,0	29	26	27	30	22	28	19	17	(bfd)	28	10	-34	31	25	24	29	29
56	GBR 125	Phil Sharp, Nick Murray	379,0	30	22	30	22	28	23	23	26	(bfd)	36	31	32	23	19	14	20	(dnf)
57	GBR 695	Stewart Robertson, Ben Robertson	385,0	24	29	27	28	31	24	(bfd)	23	30	-34	26	31	14	22	21	28	27
58	NED 729	Jason Hogendoorn, Sam Frank	401,0	-32	27	31	26	29	25	dne	11	11	33	23	30	28	(dnf)	27	27	dnc
59	GBR 124	Chris Rashley, Matt Gotrel	412,0	13	12	13	9	23	22	-27	22	18	(dnc)	dnc	dnc	dnc	dnc	dnc	dnc	dnc
60	ITA 101	Michele Monzini, Giovanni Ciapessoni	439,0	28	(dnf)	23	27	raf	raf	raf	18	28	26	35	21	33	(dns)	dns	31	30
61	ITA 967	Marcello Mignone, Carlo Pedrali	449,0	30	-31	30	29	29	31	30	29	20	29	36	33	(dnf)	dnf	31	30	22
62	CRO 129	Kolja Dumanic, Josip Serdarevic	456,0	32	30	29	31	28	26	29	28	(bfd)	25	32	35	34	31	26	(dnf)	dnf
63	RUS 951	Stanislav Pupyshev, Mikhail Chegurov	492,0	31	-32	31	30	32	29	26	31	31	37	37	36	(dnf)	dnf	30	dnc	31
64	GBR 123	Ben Paton, Adam Hilton	512,0	31	29	29	29	30	(ocs)	24	27	bfd	(dnc)	dnc	dnc	dnc	dnc	dnc	dnc	dnc