Fourth time for Ainslie

Britains top Olympian, Ben Ainslie, takes Finn Europeans yet again

Awesome Ben Ainslie overcame an eight-point deficit going into the final medal race to claim a sensational 2008 Finn European Championship title at Scarlino, Italy on Saturday (May 10).

With Frenchman Guillaume Florent having led the Championships since day three, Skandia Team GBR’s five-time World champion Ainslie knew he needed at least four boats to be between himself and Florent at the end of Saturday’s medal race if he was going to claim his fourth European title.

With clinical efficiency the Lymington-based double Olympic champion sealed a dramatic final race win meaning the destiny of the title was unfolding behind him and with Florent finishing eighth, the gold medal was Ainslie’s while Croatia’s Ivan Gaspic took silver and Florent was forced to settle for bronze.

A delighted Ainslie said: “I had a game plan that I had discussed with my coach, Jez Fanstone, to have a bit of a match race with Florent in the pre-start and to try to put him off his game plan.

“I managed to force him into making a mistake and by halfway down the first beat I could see he wasn’t going so well so I decided to pull the throttle to try to get as big a lead as possible and hope he didn’t pull through.

“This does rank amongst one of my more satisfying victories; it is always nice to win when you have been behind going into the last race. It was really difficult conditions, the wind was really shifting and the medal race was delayed by a couple of hours too.

“The Worlds and Olympics are my big goals for the year but the Europeans are an important event and it was important to keep the impetus going in what was my last big event before Beijing.”

In an incident packed week, Ainslie, who took gold the last time he competed at the Championships in 2005 having also sailed to glory in 2002 and 2003, got off to a perfect start taking victory in the only race of day one.

But having picked up an ultimately discarded 16th and a fourth on a long, hard day two, and a second and eighth the following day, Ainslie trailed Florent by seven points at the halfway mark.

The Brit thought he had pulled himself even further back into gold medal contention after posting two bullets in races six and seven but his Championship hopes took a hit when, following a protest for a pre-start infringement involving Canadian Christopher Cook, Ainslie was disqualified from race seven.

An eighth for Ainslie and a discarded 20th for Florent on the penultimate day of racing left Ainslie knowing exactly what was required to make it a 2008 World and European Championships double and once again in the face of pressure, he rose to the challenge to claim the top prize. 

Results:

Pos	Helm	Nationality	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	MR	Tot	Net
1st	Ben Ainslie	GBR	1	16	4	2	8	1	(84.0 DSQ)	8	2	126	42
2nd	Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic	CRO	(84.0 DSQ)	4	9	8	7	8	1	6	4	131	47
3rd	Guillaume Florent	FRA	2	2	6	1	3	12	6	-20	16	68	48
4th	Gasper Vincec	SLO	6	1	3	13	9	15	(84.0 DSQ)	4	8	143	59
5th	Jonas Hogh-Christensen	DEN	4	12	10	5	-30	10	2	11	12	96	66
6th	Christopher Cook	CAN	14	3	2	3	1	11	(84.0 DSQ)	16	18	152	68
7th	Daniel Birgmark	SWE	3	(84.0 BFD)	14	19	18	4	7	3	6	158	74
8th	Pieter-Jan Postma	NED	9	15	1	-20	2	17	10	7	14	95	75
9th	Zach Railey	USA	-63	6	5	7	5	16	3	21	20	146	83
10th	Rafael Trujillo	ESP	-35	7	11	16	16	27	4	1	10	127	92
11th	Rafal Szukiel	POL	15	17	16	10	20	13	5	15	-24	135	111
12th	Tapio Nirkko	FIN	20	23	17	4	4	26	12	9	-31	146	115
13th	Ed Wright	GBR	8	13	8	28	14	2	(84.0 BFD)	29	14	200	116
14th	Dan Slater	NZL	32	11	7	(84.0 OCS)	19	6	16	17	13	205	121
15th	Anthony Nossiter	AUS	24	-28	12	23	12	3	9	22	16	149	121
16th	Giorgio Poggi	ITA	11	26	15	22	-29	14	15	25	15	172	143
17th	Ismael Bruno	FRA	7	21	23	29	6	-31	24	28	12	181	150
18th	Ali kemal Tufekci	TUR	-62	22	18	17	25	24	14	5	28	215	153
19th	Jonathan Lobert	FRA	22	5	24	-27	13	18	20	27	27	183	156
20th	Ed Greig	GBR	26	8	(84.0 OCS)	15	32	5	29	18	25	242	158
21st	Timothy Goodbody	IRL	27	(84.0 BFD)	13	30	22	21	22	2	22	243	159
22nd	Eduard Skornyakov	RUS	-54	14	22	9	24	25	8	30	35	221	167
23rd	Jan Kurfeld	GER	37	25	25	6	27	-44	18	10	21	213	169
24th	Piotr Kula	POL	10	10	-41	14	26	30	37	23	26	217	176
25th	Michael Maier	CZE	-52	30	21	37	15	23	23	24	17	242	190
26th	Riccardo Cordovani	ITA	21	19	36	35	31	(84.0 DNF)	17	12	23	278	194
27th	Mark Andrews	GBR	31	33	26	11	28	7	-34	32	30	232	198
28th	Peer Moberg	NOR	23	(84.0 BFD)	19	84.0 OCS	10	28	11	13	11	283	199
29th	Emanuele Vaccari	ITA	5	29	29	-47	33	38	13	26	37	257	210
30th	Florian Raudaschl	AUT	30	20	28	36	21	19	21	41	(84.0 DNC)	300	216
31st	Haris Papadopoulos	CYP	39	(84.0 BFD)	46	31	11	20	19	14	44	308	224
32nd	Bjorn Allansson	SWE	-50	9	20	26	40	35	39	31	29	279	229
33rd	Andrew Mills	GBR	(84.0 OCS)	84.0 BFD	35	24	17	9	25	19	33	330	246
34th	Nanno Schuttrups	NED	34	32	42	18	41	41	-55	34	20	317	262
35th	Rudolf Lidarik	CZE	17	24	30	38	47	34	38	35	-49	312	263
36th	Diego Fructuoso	ESP1	-51	27	34	34	38	42	28	39	32	325	274
37th	Tomas Vika	CZE	33	36	33	32	37	37	33	-44	41	326	282
38th	Matt Johnston	CAN	48	(84.0 BFD)	44	41	34	22	26	38	34	371	287
39th	Alexandros Dragoutsis	GRE	47	37	-50	25	35	48	31	36	46	355	305
40th	Marko Kolic	ITA	13	(84.0 DNC)	37	60	23	29	60	84.0 BFD	19	409	325
41st	Francesco Lubrano	ITA	41	34	49	33	-57	32	35	56	45	382	325
42nd	Andriy Gusenko	UKR	25	35	38	48	-51	43	46	47	48	381	330
43rd	Mihail Kopanov	BUL	-72	18	47	42	43	39	47	45	50	403	331
44th	Dennis de Ruiter	NED	12	45	40	57	45	-63	43	55	36	396	333
45th	Piero Romeo	ITA	68	(84.0 BFD)	48	12	49	53	32	62	18	426	342
46th	Dmirtry Tereshkin	RUS	-70	43	31	40	55	49	49	49	43	429	359
47th	Marton Beliczay	HUN	38	40	-68	43	46	50	64	42	55	446	378
48th	Carlo Recchi	ITA	45	(84.0 BFD)	53	46	44	45	52	48	47	464	380
49th	Gaszton Pal	HUN	16	31	43	-68	54	56	58	63	60	449	381
50th	Marco Buglielli	ITA	43	42	51	56	-59	51	42	46	51	441	382
51st	Abe Torchinsky	CAN	74	(84.0 BFD)	45	45	60	36	27	57	42	470	386
52nd	Sebastian Kaule	GER	56	(84.0 BFD)	27	54	62	46	48	54	40	471	387
53rd	Michal Strusinski	POL	58	38	64	53	-67	52	41	37	59	469	402
54th	Eduardo Couto	BRA	(84.0 OCS)	84.0 BFD	39	44	39	47	30	84.0 BFD	39	490	406
55th	Roberto Bosetti	ITA	18	49	56	-66	64	58	50	61	58	480	414
56th	Simone Mancini	ITA	49	48	55	51	-66	54	62	51	52	488	422
57th	Karel Van Hellemond	NED	46	(84.0 BFD)	84.0 OCS	39	48	40	51	33	84.0 DNC	509	425
58th	Alexey Selivanov	RUS	(84.0 OCS)	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	21	36	33	44	40	84.0 DNC	510	426
59th	Kenneth Boggild	DEN	40	(84.0 BFD)	52	55	50	60	56	67	53	517	433
60th	Jan CaJCIC	CZE	53	41	69	-74	53	57	40	65	57	509	435
61st	Tomas Hrncal	CZE	28	60	-77	63	56	62	57	59	64	526	449
62nd	Frederico Melo	POR	67	(84.0 BFD)	32	50	42	55	84.0 DNF	84.0 DNC	38	536	452
63rd	Gert Van der Heijden	NED	44	59	65	49	61	75	36	66	(84.0 DNC)	539	455
64th	Lorenzo Podestà	ITA	55	(84.0 BFD)	67	64	52	59	54	50	56	541	457
65th	Viacheslav Sivienkov	RUS	29	57	73	69	-75	67	65	43	66	544	469
66th	Maciej Pezala	POL	42	54	66	52	65	66	66	60	-68	539	471
67th	Geza Huszar	HUN	36	47	60	72	72	71	45	68	(84.0 DNC)	555	471
68th	Vasily Kravchenko	RUS	60	46	-74	71	63	61	59	58	54	546	472
69th	Peter Haidekker	HUN	59	53	-72	62	58	64	71	53	65	557	485
70th	Paolo Cisbani	ITA	-73	50	59	59	73	73	73	52	62	574	501
71st	Conrad Brown	USA	19	39	54	70	70	(84.0 DNF)	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	588	504
72nd	Davourlis Panagiutis	GRE	66	44	62	58	68	69	67	(84.0 DNC)	84.0 DNC	602	518
73rd	Tomek Kosmicki	POL	64	56	61	67	-77	77	69	71	63	605	528
74th	Andrea Bianchi	ITA	57	(84.0 BFD)	58	65	69	68	70	64	84.0 DNC	619	535
75th	Srdjan Volarevic	SRB	69	62	57	73	-78	72	72	70	61	614	536
76th	Branislav Erac	SRB	61	61	70	61	-80	78	68	74	70	623	543
77th	Constantinos Gnafakis	GRE	65	55	71	78	71	79	63	69	(84.0 DNC)	635	551
78th	Francesco Cinque	ITA	(84.0 OCS)	51	63	75	79	74	53	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	647	563
79th	Eirinaios Gnafakis	GRE	75	58	76	77	74	65	74	72	(84.0 DNC)	655	571
80th	Darko Burcul	SRB	-76	52	75	76	76	76	75	73	69	648	572
81st	Michele Tognozzi	ITA	(84.0 DNC)	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	70	61	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	719	635
82nd	Mauro Merlini	ITA	71	(84.0 DNC)	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	67	726	642
83rd	Aimilios Papathanasiou	GRE	(84.0 DNF)	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	84.0 DNC	756	672