POSTED: Wednesday April 8th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Patience pays off for British sailors in Palma
ISAF Sailing World Cup event in Palma, Majorca, on Wednesday (8 April)
Britain’s sailors made the best of a long and frustrating day on the water on day four of the ISAF Sailing World Cup event in Palma, Majorca, on Wednesday (8 April).
A further day of highly changeable, unstable wind conditions led to long delays, with the majority of classes unable to start racing until gone 1630 local time and returning to shore as the sun set across Palma Bay.
When racing finally did get underway at the Princess Sofia Trophy, Skandia Team GBR’s Finn and 49er sailors posted another set of strong results in spite of the tricky conditions.
Both classes boast four British boats in the top ten after this fourth day of the six day regatta, with Finn sailor Ed Wright narrowly missing out on a race win in only race of the day for the heavyweight dinghy class.
The 31-year-old was pipped to the post by local Spanish hero Rafael Trujillo, but remains in the silver medal position overall, with Giles Scott moving up to third, Andrew Mills in fourth and Mark Andrews in seventh and breaking into the top ten for the first time this week.
“The first race they tried to get underway today was abandoned which was just as well as I’d actually broken my tiller extension, so I was holding it one hand and up the first beat I was having to sail with my mainsheet tied to my tiller,” Wright recalled.
“I was winning the last race and then there was a left shift on the last beat and Rafa [Trujillo] just squeezed past me – I think he won the race by about an inch.”
Wright was quick to praise event management for their efforts on a difficult day. “I’ve been impressed with the race officer and his patience,” he said. “Quality racing is always better than quantity.”
John Pink and Rick Peacock had another impressive display in the 49er class to see them hold their silver medal spot, and reduce the gap to just one point behind the Italian series leaders, with Skandia Team GBR stablemates Paul Campbell-James-Mark Asquith, Dave Evans-Simon Hiscocks and Dylan Fletcher-Alain Sign all joining them inside the top ten.
Pink and Peacock picked up a career best result of second at the Miami leg of the World Cup in January, and are on track to make it back to back podium spots at this first European World Cup event.
But Pink remains modest about their progress so far: “Miami was good and then we came to this, took it easy on the first day because of the new rigs but it seems to be going alright and looks like the practice is working!
“We’re still trying to learn with these new rigs as much as we can, and just keep trying to make things better for the next event. Everybody’s [in the British fleet] is really, really close so that’s making us work harder.”
In the 470 Women’s fleet, Hannah Mills and Katrina Hughes were able to shake off their false start on Monday with a solid 4,1 from their two races today. The Development Squad sailors have now leapfrogged teammates Penny Clark and Saskia Clark to take fifth place in the leaderboard, with Clark-Clark in sixth with scores of 14,4 for their efforts.
“We managed to get off the start line well today which was a pretty big thing and just get on the first shift – that was all our aim was,” said Mills, recalling their penalty for a false start on Monday.”
“We’d like to knock in some consistent results tomorrow to hopefully put us in a good position for the medal race,” Mills continued. “After getting a black flag earlier in the week, we can’t really afford any more disasters!”
The new pairing of Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers and Pom Green showed their mettle on the first day of gold fleet racing, with a second and a third from their two races pulling them up from 29th overnight into tenth position overall, while Nick Thompson also held steady in the Laser fleet, posting a race win to maintain his overall second place behind Croatian Tonci Stipanovic
Nick Dempsey and Bryony Shaw are currently just outside medal contention, in seventh and sixth places respectively the RS:X men’s and women’s windsurfing events, while RYA Volvo Youth Squad sailor Izzy Hamilton has broken into the top ten in this major senior circuit regatta.
In the Paralympic 2.4mR class, Helena Lucas sits in bronze medal position with Megan Pascoe close behind in fourth, while Laser Radial world bronze medallist Andrea Brewster picked up the pace to post a fourth from her only race today. She’s place 18th overall with Charlotte Dobson in 19th.
The Princess Sofia Trophy runs through until Friday 10 April. For full results and further information, visit http://www.skandiateamgbr.com/
49er (after 10 races)
1. Pietro Sibello-Gianfranco Sibello, ITA (27pts)
2. John Pink-Rick Peacock, GBR (28pts)
3. Federico Alonso-Arturo Alonso, ESP (48pts)
Selected GBR
5. Paul Campbell-James-Mark Asquith (61pts)
6. Dave Evans-Simon Hiscocks (61pts)
8. Dylan Fletcher-Alain Sign (71pts)
Finn (after 5 races)
1. Rafael Trujillo, ESP (10pts)
2. Ed Wright, GBR (15pts)
3. Glles Scott, GBR (16pts)
Other GBR
4. Andrew Mills (22pts)
7. Mark Andrews (29pts)
470 Men (after 6 races)
1. Nicolas Charbonnier-Baptiste Meyer, FRA (20pts)
2. Steven Lefevre-Steven Krol, NED (21pts)
3. Anton Dahlberg-Sebastian Ostling, SWE (27pts)
Selected GBR
10. Nick Rogers-Pom Green (41pts)
21. Ben Saxton-David Kohler (59pts)
25. Luke Patience-Chris Grube (67pts)
470 Women (after 6 races)
1. Ingrid Petitjean-Nadege Douroux, FRA (17pts)
2. Tara Pacheco-Berta Betanzos, ESP (20pts)
3. Sylvia Vogl-Carolina Flatscher, AUT (12pts)
GBR
5. Hannah Mills-Katrina Hughes, (34pts)
6. Penny Clark-Saskia Clark (35pts)
15. Sophie Weguelin-Sophie Ainsworth (62pts)
RS:X Men (after 6 races)
1. Dorian van Rijsselberge, NED (10pts)
2. Fabian Heidegger, ITA (16pts)
3. Ricardo Santos, BRA (19pts)
GBR
7. Nick Dempsey (28pts)
25. Richard Hamilton (70pts)
31. Elliot Carney (61pts)
RS:X Women (after 4 races)
1. Blanca Manchon, ESP (8pts)
2. Marina Alabau, ESP (12pts)
3. Flavia Tartaglini, ITA (14pts)
Selected GBR
5. Bryony Shaw (28pts)
10. Izzy Hamilton (53pts)
2.4mR (after 6 races)
1. Thierry Schmitter, NED (7pts)
2. Andre Rademaker, NED (11pts)
3. Helena Lucas, GBR (12pts)
GBR
4. Megan Pascoe (17pts)
Laser (after 5 races)
1. Tonci Stipanonvic, CRO (6pts)
2. Nick Thompson, GBR (10pts)
3. Giacomo Bottoli, ITA (24pts)
Laser Radial (after 5 races)
1. Paige Railey, USA (17pts)
2. Anna Tunnicliffe, USA (18pts)
3. Susana Romero, ESP (23pts)
Selected GBR
18. Andrea Brewster (72pts)
19. Charlotte Dobson (73pts)
ENDS
For rights free images for editorial use, visit Skandia Team GBR’s Media Archive at http://media.skandiateamgbr.
For more information, please contact:
Lindsey Bell
Skandia Team GBR Communications Manager
T: 02380 604216
M: 07900 570530
Notes for Editors:
Ø The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is the national governing body for all forms of sailing, windsurfing, and powerboat racing.
Ø The RYA is recognised by all government offices as being the negotiating body for the activities it represents. It continually fights for the rights and freedoms of its 103,000 personal members, the majority of whom choose to go afloat for purely recreational non-competitive pleasure on coastal and inland waters.
Ø It represents a further estimated 500,000 boat owners nationally through its 1600 affiliated clubs and boat owner associations.
Ø Olympic and Youth sailing is a beneficiary of the Lottery funded World Class Programmes (WCP) and administered by the Sports Councils. The Programmes focus on performance sport with the aim of achieving sporting excellence on the world stage. Further information can be found on the UK Sport website at www.uksport.gov.uk and Sport England’s website at ”>http://www.sportengland.org/\”>www.sportengland.org. The Volvo RYA Champion Club Programme, RYA Volvo Youth Squad, RYA Volvo Transitional training, RYA Volvo Youth National Championships and Trials and the RYA Volvo Zone & Home Countries Championships are supported by Volvo Car UK.
Ø Further information can be found at ”>http://www.rya.org.uk/\”>www.rya.org.uk
About Skandia
Skandia in the UK launched in 1979 and is now one of the leading international long term savings groups providing pensions, investment and protection products through intermediaries in the UK and overseas, with assets under management of £34.9n (as at 31.12.08). Creators of the MultiManager approach, Skandia has teamed up with the world\‘s top fund managers to create a range of funds tailored for investors\’ individual needs.
Skandia UK is part of an international group founded in Sweden in 1855. The group is a leading, independent provider of long-term savings solutions.
Skandia UK is a division of the Skandia Group, itself owned by Old Mutual plc. Old Mutual is an international financial services group, listed on the London Stock Exchange where it is a FTSE 100® company, making it one of the largest 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Old Mutual is headquartered in London.
Being a part of Old Mutual makes Skandia a key division of the seventh largest life assurer in Europe, with a strong financial base. The combined group has funds under management of £264.8 billion and has approximately 50,000* employees.
*As at 30 December 2008, Source: Old Mutual
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Keywords · ISAF Sailing World Cup · Palma · Majorca · Royal Yachting Association
Name: Lindsey Bell
Organization: Royal Yachting Association
Email:
Phone: +44.02380.604100
URL: http://www.rya.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx
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