London 2012 day six: Percy, Simpson and Ainslie assured of medals

As British sailors dominate the 470s

Star

Down on the Weymouth Bay South course, the wind today was down slightly and still in the SSW. However the sea had evened out with the longer swell more prevalent than yesterday's difficult short chop.

While Greece's Emilios Papathanasiou and Antonis Tsotras were OCS, the USA's Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih did well up the first beat along with Freddie Loof and Max Salminen while most headed left. At the top mark the Americans led the Swedes around with Brazil's Robert Scheidt/Bruno Prada in third and Percy/Simpson holding sixth.

On the run Scheidt overhauled the US team, while on the followed beat France's Xavier Rohart and Pierre-Alexis Ponsot joined the lead group with the Brazilians still ahead at the second top mark, rounding ahead of the Americans.

Down the final run the Swedes got back into it, rolling past Mendelblatt and Fatih to relieve them of second, while after a slow start (for them) Percy and Simpson recovered, pulling up to fourth.

In race two Percy and Simpson were fastest out of the blocks ahead of Poles Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki wth the Swiss Flavio Marazzi and Enrico De Maria also in the frame. The Brits subsequently led for the rest of the race. On the first run Germans Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen rolled the Poles to move into second but up the next beat the Poles regained their place. On the final run Scheidt and Prada moved up to take third behind the Poles at the line.

"The first race didn’t go quite according to plan and we fought our way back, but sadly we only got back to fourth, although we were close to getting third," said Andrew Simpson of today's racing. "It was quite shifty and we just didn’t quite go the right way and we got stuck in a bit of traffic in the first downwind leg. We didn’t quite get away from the fleet as well as we wanted to. And it was important in the second race to come back and do well and we got it right, we were going the right way and we were going fast. Today was great fun, lovely conditions again."

On secure themselves a medal of some description, Simpson said: "It is obviously the first step which is great and we feel very lucky to have done that. We have sailed a great regatta up until now. Everytime it has gone badly we have fought back well. But obviously there is one big race to come on Sunday.

However the medal race will be held on the Nothe, the first time the Stars have sailed there in this regatta (their courses are too long to sail there regularly). "It is a slightly different style," says Percy. "But we have a really good track record for the medal races there - I think we have won most of the ones we’ve done.

"We like that style of racing, the short sharp responding that you need to have. At the same time there are big wind shifts and it is a short race and it is hard to catch up, so there is much more of a random element to it which we don’t like. All we can do is prepare as much as we can and maybe watch some of the racing tomorrow and look forwad ot Sunday. Win, lose or draw it is going to be an incredible spectacular. There are three boats in it now. There are three teams of sailors who have been in unbelievable form – it is incredibly frustrating that Andrew and I have probably sailed the best we ever have and we can’t get any distance on them, because both Freddie/Max and Bruno/Robert are just sailing incredibly this week as well. Three people have really turned it up this week."

Percy says that the Nothe is always tactical but in terms of the medal race they only have to focus on two teams - the Brazilians and the Swedes. "Three places, which is all our lead is, is pretty small for a medal race, so it is basically anyone’s at this point."

Robert Scheidt was pleased with their sailing in the race while in the second they had hoped to regain some points on the Brits but Percy and Simpson sailed a good first beat and pulled away. "We were still able to climb up to third, so we are happy with that result. So we will see. They are 8 points ahead of us - it is a long way away, not so easy to get, but we will take our chances and fight for it in the medal race.

"We are going to try to sail free and hit the shifts, because on the Nothe course you cannot protect so much, you can’t look at two competitors. So we are going to try and sail our own race. The Nothe course certainly gives you more opportunities. On the south course, like today, speed counts a lot, so if the favourites aren’t doing well they catch up during the race. On the medal race course I think there are more opportunities for the other guys to mix in."

See the race reports on the Finn, Star, 470 Men, 470 Women, 49er, Laser Men, Laser Women, Rick Tomlinson's photo gallery and Carlo Borlenghi's photo gallery.

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