Another Skandia Team GBR injury

As Iain Percy's back goes today at the Perth 2011 ISAF World Championships

The Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships are not going quite according to plan. Following Ben Ainslie’s disqualification from two races on Friday, today started with the news that Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes had been forced to retire from the 49er event following a rib strain to Rhodes on Monday. Today Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson’s hopes of retaining their World Championship crown were also hit when Percy’s back gave out when they were in a strong position in the first race of the day for the Star fleet.

The 2008 Olympic gold medallists, overnight leaders with a 12 point margin heading into the day, were third in the race and when injury hit.

“Iain was in tears, crying, and really in a bad way,” said Simpson of his Skandia Team GBR teammate and best friend. “I haven’t actually ever seen him that bad before. It’s not very nice when you see a grown man cry and he was in absolute agony. We tried to make the plan to try and literally just get around the course and we had a good lead on fourth place – the three boats at the front were making a nice separation.

“Then somehow, with Iain basically in a paralysed way down the run, we got a yellow flag which was our second one of the regatta,” Simpson continued. “It was very surprising, very frustrating and obviously we had to pull out of the race. There was nothing more we could do and Iain couldn’t sail the next race.”

With the Star class scheduled to have a layday on Wednesday (14 December) Percy will undergo physio treatment and the team will decide over the next 24 hours whether he will be in a position to continue the regatta.

“I’ll take Iain’s health over anything, any event,” said Simpson. “Getting him in good shape is the most important thing. Not being able to defend the world title would be very frustrating, because we were in a very, very strong position to do it after four and a half races. That’s life.

“Obviously next year’s the big one for us and we need to get Iain down in the physio room and get him fixed up for the next few months and make sure this can’t happen when the one we care about the most, the Olympics, happens.”

RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park reflected on a challenging event so far for Skandia Team GBR, but was confident his charges would hold their own over the remainder of the regatta.

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve had three independent, unrelated challenges to contend with so far at this regatta what with dealing with the causes and fallout of Ben Ainslie’s incident, Ben Rhodes’ injury which is one of those things that could happen to anyone at any time, and now the issue with Iain’s back when he and Bart were in a commanding position in the Star class.

“It’s disappointing for those guys who’ve been working so hard towards this regatta, and certainly is not how we’d hoped the regatta would unfold, but it’s important to keep these things in perspective. Although World Championship titles are important, our eyes are on the bigger prize of the Olympics in Weymouth in 2012.

“Despite these setbacks we’re still racing competitively in the remaining events and hopeful that we’ll see some more of our sailors on the podium before the event concludes.”

Meanwhile on the water, offshore winds of 20+ knots proved challenging for sailors today with 10 capsizes counted in the 49er class.

Star

Percy and Simpson withdrawal today may result in them not sailing again at the Perth 2011.

Percy had been suffering back pain after Monday’s races but was determined to finish the first race today. However, when he and Simpson received their second yellow flag of the regatta, Percy was brought to shore for treatment. Simpson said: “It’s frustrating; sadly this is the second event in a row Iain has injured himself. He injured his ankle last time,” he said.

Shortly after the race, Percy said on his Twitter account: “My back fully went today half way through the first race. Unfortunately the end of the championships and the beginning of a few weeks of physio.”

On the penalty that ended their race, Simpson said: “Sadly we picked up a yellow flag and we don’t know why – we’re still confused.”

Race 5 was won by Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki, who led for the entire course. Closely behind in second place were Brazilian Beijing Olympic silver medallists Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prad, ) who were well clear of Germany’s Johannes Polgar and Markus Koy in third.

In the sixth race, Scheidt and Prada had to settle for another second place after crossing the finish line just two seconds behind Swedish pair Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen. Coming in third and with only one second separating them from the Brazilians were Kusznierewicz and Zycki.

After six races, Scheidt and Prada move into first position overall.The USA’s Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Faith and the Polish duo trail the Brazilians by only one point.

Top 20 places: 

Laser

Australian Laser world champion Tom Slingsby has set himself apart from the rest of the fleet with three wins out of four races in competition at the ISAF Worlds in Perth.

Under ominous skies and on a day where one race went for 10 minutes before it was restarted because of a significant 20-degree wind shift, Slingsby was like lightning, streaking away from the fleet.

“I actually sailed well today,” he said. “The first race was crazy. There was probably 10 knots difference around the course with pressure and at times I looked really good, then really bad.

“I was lucky coming into the top mark. I might have been 15th but got a nice left-hander right at the top and somehow got into second. Then the leader got a yellow flag on the run and it allowed me to get into the lead.”

Slingsby was the only double winner and sits alone on single figures with nine points while his closest rivals are British sailors Paul Goodison and Nick Thompson, tied one behind on 19 points with Germany’s Simon Groteluschen.

World number two Nick Thompson, had to be content with shadowing Goodison in race four for second place, after finishing eighth in race three.

France’s Jean Baptiste Bernaz, who scored a second and 10th today, sits in equal fifth place with Sweden’s Johan Wigforss.

With six races contested in the three fleets today, Slingsby covered the Blue Fleet; Goodison and Australia’s Tom Burton dominated Yellow fleet; while the Netherland’s Rutger van Schaardenburg and Greece’s Pavlos Kontides won in the Red fleet.

Top 20 results

49er

After a hard day of dramatically fluctuating winds and more than ten capsizes, Denmark’s Peter Kruger Andersen and Nicolai Thorsell have moved into the lead at the end of the second day of competition.

The USA’s Erik Storck and Trevor Moore finished first in race 4 for the Yellow fleet, crossing the line 21 seconds ahead of Uruguayans Santiago Silveira and Philipp Umpierre, who placed second.

Race five saw Danes Allan Noerregaard and Peter Lang win comfortably with Skandia Team GBR’s David Evans and Edward Powys second and Storck and Moore with another good race in third place.

After a complicated start with several boats called back to the line, Kruger Anderson and Thorsell took out the sixth race a massive 101 seconds ahead of Canada’s Jonathan Ladha and Daniel Inkpen, with Storck and Moore again in third place.

The first race of the day for the Blue fleet saw wind speeds soar to 23 knots in the last leg of the race which allowed Australia’s Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen to maintain the lead for the entire race, crossing the line 42 seconds ahead of Danes Emil Toft Nielsen and Simon Toft Nielsen.

Outteridge and Jensen had another win in race 5, with the Nielsen brothers once again finishing shortly behind by a mere 11 seconds.

Wind changes caused huge drama in the last race of the day resulting in constant course alterations, but this did little to hinder French aces, Stephane Christidis and Emmanuel Dyen, who crossed the line first, 21 seconds ahead of Australians Will and Sam Phillips.

Favourites to win the last race, Outteridge and Jensen struggled from the start and ended up finishing 13th.

Among the remaining Brits after Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes’ retirement, two remain in the top ten– John Pink and Rick Peacock are seventh overall with Dave Evans and Ed Powys in ninth.

Top 20 results:

Women’s 470

Young Spanish sailors Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos have wrapped up the second day of competition with wins in races three and four to claim top position overall.

Defending World Champions from the Netherlands - Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout held on to their second place overall, while Japan’s Ai Kondo and Wakato Tabata slipped from first to third in the fleet standings.

After a number of changes at the front of the fleet early in race three, it was Pacheco who managed to hold on to the lead as they rounded the sixth and final mark before the finish.

Italy’s Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol finished second, with Britain’s Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes third, followed by Germany’s Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke in fourth.

Great Britain’s Clark and Hughes led the pack from the start in race four, followed closely by Israel’s Gil Cohen and Vered Buskila as they rounded the first mark.

But as the race ended, it was the Spaniards who again managed to get over the line for the win.

In Race 4, Israel’s Cohen and Buskila finished second, Westerhof and Berkhout third. They were followed by Japan’s Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata in fourth.

Berta Betanzos commented: “It was hard as in the first race we were fighting with the British, Italians and Germans, but in the end we could take it. The British passed us in the downwind, but finally we passed them on the inside. We were too fast. We were pleased with our speed and sailed the boat really well.”

Among the Brits at the end of play Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes are poised in fourth overall while Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, who have been already selected to go to London 2012 have risen to sixth overall with a ninth and a sixth for the day.

Top 20 results:

Women’s Match Racing

Women’s Match Racing was charged with excitement and devastation in equal measures on Tuesday as places in the quarterfinals and the London 2012 Olympic Games Sailing Competition were finalised with the end of Stage 2.

It was an important day for all teams in the repechage round robin and perhaps a night of celebration for elated teams from Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Portugal, who all secured a place for their country at the Olympic sailing competition at Weymouth and Portland next July.

New Zealand’s Stephanie Hazard and her crew got through early in the day after just two matches and were pleased with their performances despite being beaten by the team of Spain’s Tamara Echegoyen. A close win against the USA’s Genny Tulloch in the last lap secured their spot.

Sweden’s Anna Kjellberg and her crew got their country an Olympic place after beating Portugal’s Rita Goncalves and Denmark’s Lotte Meldgaard.

It was a nail biting finish as the final place in the Olympics was decided in the very last match of the day. Screams of delight came from the stand when the Portuguese team realised they had succeeded, thanks to Austalian Nicky Souter beating Finland’s Silja Lehtinen.

Winds were up to 20 knots and shifty in a south easterly breeze for most of the day. It confused some of the skippers, with Souter making a mistake which cost her second place in the quarterfinals.

Souter and Australian rival Olivia Price were neck and neck on points up to the second last match in the race for quarterfinal berths, until a mistake by Souter in her penultimate match against Skandia Team GBR’s Lucy Macgregor.

She finished the match one lap too soon, putting Price ahead of her on points and in second place in the quarterfinals. Souter now faces world champion Anna Tunnicliffe from the USA in the quarters, while Price is up against the Russian team of Ekaterina Skudina.

There was also confusion over the winner of the match between Germany’s Silke Hahlbrook and the Netherlands’ Renne Groeneveld when both teams followed the wrong course and then corrected their mistake without stopping.

A discussion by Race Committee umpires late in the afternoon found that the match still counted and awarded Hahlbrock with the point as they had crossed the line in first place.

For Skandia Team GBR, Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor booked their berth in the women’s match racing quarter-finals, rounding off the repechage stage in style with four wins out of four for the day, and 13 wins to 2 losses for the overall stage.

Men’s RS:X

Israel’s Nimrod Mashich heads the leaderboard after four races in the Men’s RS:X event with two top ranked Polish sailors, including the world number one, just four points behind.

The second day of racing began with Dutch favourite Dorian van Rijsselberge leading a good distance ahead of the Blue fleet in race 3, until a lapse led him off track. Dropping from a clear first place down to seventh after the third marker, he wound up in 15th position

The race went to Canadian Zachary Plavsic, the first win at the Perth 2011 World Championships for the Canadian RS:X team.

The Dutch ace redeemed himself in race 4 however, coming first, 15 seconds ahead of New Zealand’s Beijing Gold medallist Tom Ashley with Poland’s Piotr Myszka third.

In the Yellow fleet, Poland’s Prezemyslaw Miarczynski won race 3. However Nimrod Mashich maintained his overall number one position by placing second and winning race four.

Elliot Carney is the leading Skandia Team GBR sailor in the RS:X men’s windsurfing event. The development squad sailor is in sixth overall with an impressive 3,6 for his efforts on Fremantle’s Centre Course today, with Nick Dempsey was left scratching his head after picking up a 15th in his first race, before recovering to fifth in the second. He’s currently in 18th place overall.

Top 20 results: