Asher and Willis miss out in 470 final at ISAF Sailing World Cup

by Lindsey Bell on 31 May 2009
World Champions Nic Asher and Elliot Willis narrowly missed out in Great Britain’s first medal opportunity at the Delta Lloyd Regatta - They finished fourth in the 470 event won by the French pair Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos. Sunday will see 15 GBR boats featuring in the medal races on the final day of the regatta.

In the Laser Radial final medal race, which was also held on Saturday evening, Charlotte Dobson finished tenth overall. Gold went to Tatiana Drizdovskaya (BLR) with Alberte hol Lindberg (DEN) second and Veronika Fenclova (CZE) third.

World Champions Nic Asher and Elliot Willis narrowly missed out in Great Britain’s first medal opportunity at the Delta Lloyd Regatta – the fifth leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup – on Saturday.

The duo went into the final medal race for the 470 men’s event, held on Saturday evening, in fourth place on equal points with the third placed French crew. But after a bad start they were unable to claw their way into the bronze medal spot during the three-lap final and had to settle for fourth place overall.

The French pair of Pierre Leboucher-Vincent Garos took gold, with the local Dutch duo of Sven Coster-Kalle Coster in claiming silver and Argentina’s Lucas Calabrese-Juan de la Feunte bronze.

'We’re disappointed not to have got a medal today,' admitted Asher afterwards, 'but considering we’ve not really been sailing all that well this week we’ve not done too badly.

'We’re pretty fast, but just not that race sharp at the moment and that’s where the mistakes came this week I think.'

Skandia Team GBR will look to make their mark on Sunday, with 15 boats featuring in the medal races on the final day of the regatta.

Olympic Champion and Hyeres World Cup winner Paul Goodison remains the man to beat in the Laser fleet, in spite of a 36th from his first race of the day after getting caught by a large windshift and overstanding the turning mark. Nick Thompson is three points off of the medal positions, currently in fourth so will pushing to make it two British sailors on the podium in the single-handed class tomorrow.

Giles Scott and Ed Wright will fight it out for gold in the Finn class. Just three points separate the teammates, and with both having shown good form at previous World Cup events – Scott won the Palma leg, and Wright secured gold in Miami, and silvers from Palma and Hyeres – there’ll certainly be a tough battle between them on the Ijsselmeer on Sunday.

There’s a similar story in the 49er fleet, where four Skandia Team GBR crews are within ten points of each other going into the final medal race. Paul Campbell James and Mark Asquith are currently third, just one point ahead of Chris Draper and Peter Greenhalgh in fourth and three points ahead of fifth-placed Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes. John Pink and Rick Peacock booked the fourth British spot in the ten-boat final – they’re in eighth overall.

Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Ali Martin are in control at the start of the semi-finals for the women’s match racing, where they take on the French team helmed by Anne-claire Le Berre, while Megan Pascoe is currently in the bronze medal spot in the 2.4mR Paralympic class.

Although out of medal contention, Skandia Team GBR will have two boats in the 470 women’s final, through Hannah Mills-Katrina Hughes and Penny Clark-Saskia Clark, and also Nick Dempsey in the RS:X men’s windsurfing medal race. Dempsey endured a difficult day, with scores of 23,17 seeing him drop down to ninth from fourth overnight.

Development squad duo John Gimson and Ed Greig didn’t make the cut for the ten-boat medal race in the Star class.

Delta Lloyd Regatta – ISAF Sailing World Cup Results:

470 Men (final)
1. Pierre Leboucher-Vincent Garos, FRA (58pts)
2. Sven Coster-Kalle Coster, NED (58pts)
3. Lucas Calabrese-Juan de la Fuente, ARG (59pts)
Selected GBR
4. Nic Asher-Elliot Willis (62pts)

Laser Radial (final)
1. Tatiana Drizdovskaya, BLR (106pts)
2. Alberte hol Lindberg, DEN (106pts)
3. Veronika Fenclova, CZE (110pts)
Selected GBR
10. Charlotte Dobson (159pts)

Finn (after 7 races)
1. Giles Scott, GBR (18pts)
2. Ed Wright, GBR (21pts)
3. Ivan Kjlakovic Gaspic, CRO (32pts)
Selected GBR
7. Andrew Mills (44pts)

Laser (after 11 races)
1. Paul Goodison, GBR (37pts)
2. Tonci Stipanovic, CRO (42pts)
3. Milan Vujasinovic, CRO (59pts)
Selected GBR
4. Nick Thompson (62pts)

470 Women (after 9 races)
1. Ai Kondo-Wakako Tabata, JPN (16pts)
2. Emmanuelle Rol-Helene Defrance, FRA (44pts)
3. Giulia Conti-Micol Giovanna, ITA (44pts)
GBR
8. Hannah Mills-Katrina Hughes (66pts)
10. Penny Clark-Saskia Clark, GBR (69pts)

49er (after 11 races)
1. Nathan Outteridge-Iain Jensen, AUS (55pts)
2. Pietro Sibello-Gianfranco Sibello, ITA (66pts)
3. Paul Campbell James-Mark Asquith, GBR (70pts)
Selected GBR
4. Chris Draper-Peter Greenhalgh (71pts)
5. Stevie Morrison-Ben Rhodes (73pts)
8. John Pink-Rick Peacock, (80pts)

RS:X Men (after 6 races)
1. Piotr Myszka, POL (12pts)
3. Dorian van Rijsselberge, NED (20pts)
3. Ricardo Santos, BRA (24pts)
GBR
9. Nick Dempsey (50pts)

Women’s Match Racing – Semi-final line-up
Lucy Macgregor (GBR) vs Anne-claire Le Berre (FRA)
Ulrike Schueman (GER) vs Anne Helley (FRA)

Star (after 7 races)
1. Robert Scheidt-Bruno Prada, BRA (15pts)
2. Alexander Schlonski-Frithjof Kleen, NED (15pts)
3.Frederik Loof-Johan Tillander, SWE (28pts)
GBR
12. John Gimson-Ed Greig (79pts)

2.4mR (after 9 races)
1.Thierry Schmitter, NED (12 pts)
2. Andre Rademaker, NED (20pts)
3. Megan Pascoe (21pts)
Other GBR
4. Helena Lucas, GBR (25pts)

Racing at the Delta Lloyd Regatta concludes on Sunday 31 May. For the final day schedule, live tracking from the medal races and full results, visit http://www.skandiateamgbr.com/events/hollandreg/Pages/hollreg.aspx