Sailing WC Weymouth and Portland– British sailors ready to face rivals

by RYA on 3 Jun 2016 British sailing’s elite will take on their international rivals in major competition next week for the last time before the Rio 2016 Games, as the Sailing World Cup circuit wings its way to Weymouth and Portland (8-12 June).

Fourteen of the 15 British Sailing Team athletes selected for the 2016 Olympic Games will be in action on home waters at the venue of the last Olympic sailing competition in 2012, with London medallists Nick Dempsey, Luke Patience and Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark all set to race at the site of their silver successes four years ago.

They’re among the 380 contenders across the ten Olympic classes entered for the five-day regatta, with World Champions Giles Scott (Finn), Nick Thompson (Laser) and Alison Young (Laser Radial) also part of the British Rio-bound contingent competing next week.

Scott, who won his third consecutive world title last month, will race in the Finn fleet alongside 2012 bronze medallist Jonathan Lobert, and Antipodean rivals Jake Lilley (AUS) and Josh Junior (NZL) – the latter of which has been the only man to beat Scott since April 2013.

Double World Champion Thompson faces a tough line up in the Laser class, with Australians Matt Wearn and Tom Burton among the main contenders, while Alison Young takes on the full complement of 2012 medal winners in the Laser Radial event. China’s Xu Lijia, Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands and Belgium’s Evi Van Acker return to the site of their Games triumphs.

Nick Dempsey will hope for a repeat of his 2015 World Cup gold in the men’s RS:X windsurfing event, while women’s RS:X world number one Bryony Shaw, currently training in Rio, will be the only one of the Team GB sailors missing from her home regatta. Podium squad windsurfer Izzy Hamilton will look to improve on her 2015 Weymouth and Portland World Cup outing, where she narrowly missed out on the medal spots in the final race.

In the two-person events, 470 duo Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark head into the regatta as defending titleholders and confident off the back of their Hyeres World Cup victory, while Luke Patience and Chris Grube will aim for a strong showing in the 470 men’s event, with current and former World Champions Sime Fantela-Igor Marenic of Croatia and Mat Belcher-Will Ryan from Australia among the 31-boat men’s line-up.

European Champions Ben Saxton-Nicola Groves will be in action in the Nacra 17 class and gunning for the podium spots, having narrowly missed out on a first World Cup podium finish of the year in Hyeres last month, finishing fourth in a tightly-fought medal race.

In the skiff fleets, Rio-bound duo and World Championship bronze medallists Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign will face a number of their Games rivals in the 49er class, while Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth will be looking for a strong final showing before their first Olympic outing in Rio this summer.

Racing gets underway at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy from 1100 on Wednesday 8 June.