ISAF Sailing World Cup - Standings take shape after Rolex Miami OCR

by ISAF on 1 Feb 2011 ISAF Sailing World Cup - US SAILING’s Rolex Miami OCR came to an end over the weekend with Great Britain taking 14 medals to lead the medal table in the International Sailing Federation Sailing World Cup.

The regatta, held at Biscayne Bay, Miami, is the second of seven stops on the ISAF Sailing World Cup circuit and throughout the week sailors have been competing in three Paralympic classes and ten Olympic events.

Great Britain top the Standings with seven gold, six silver and six bronze medals for a total of 19 from two regattas. Australia are second with nine medals including three gold. And France also have three gold medals and are in third with a total of five medals.

In the Finn class Great Britain claimed a clean sweep of the podium spots. Giles Scott came out on top to add 20 points to the 18 he won at Sail Melbourne in December. But Ben Ainslie leads the series after winning Sail Melbourne and coming second in Miami to lead Scott by one point on 39. Andrew Mills came third in Miami and has a series score of 31.

Great Britain claimed a second clean sweep of the regatta in the 49er. With a dominant display John Pink and Richard Peacock beat Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith by 19 points to claim gold. And Dave Evans and Edward Powys were 35 points behind in third to receive bronze.

'We quite enjoyed the [Medal] Race, it was pretty exciting – it got quite shifty and gusty,' Pink explained. 'But we thought like most Medal Races it’s good to go and try and attack them because if you try and defend it never really works out for you. We thought we’d attack it and use it as a bit of practice and we did quite well. We picked up third so we’re pretty happy.

'It’s good to start the year by winning the first event. We’re looking forward to the rest of the season and trying to keep up the good work.'

But leading the 49er series are Erik Storck and Trever Moore (USA) who finished third in Melbourne and fifth in Miami for a series score of 34. Having only sailed in one regatta Pink and Peacock are in second on 20 and Austrian’s Nico Dello-Karth and Nikolaus Resch are third having won Sail Melbourne for 20 points.

Paige Railey (USA) won gold in the Laser Radial but she is fifth in the series having only competed in Miami. Leading the Standings is defending champion Marit Bouwmeester (NED) on 34 points, in second place Nathalie Brugger (SUI) trails by five points on 29 and Krystal Weir (AUS) sits in third on 24 points.

Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS), 470 world champions and defending champions, remain top in the men’s 470 series on 39 points having won gold in Melbourne and silver in Miami. Stuart Mcnay and Grahan Biehl (USA) are second on 34 points and in third, on 26 points, are Sam Kivell and William Ryan (AUS).

Great Britain’s Nic Asher and Elliott Willis won gold at the Rolex Miami OCR and having not attended Sail Melbourne they are fifth on 20 points.

In the Women’s 470 Kathrin Kadelbach and Friederike Belcher (GER), on 27 points, hold a seven point lead in the series over Ingrid Petitjean and Nadege Douroux (FRA). The French duo won gold in Miami for 20 points with the German’s winning Sail Melbourne and finishing 14th at the Rolex Miami OCR. Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes (GBR) won silver in Miami and sit third in the series on 19 points.

Nick Thompson (GBR) finished out of the medals in fourth at the Rolex Miami OCR but, with 37 points, he has a 12 point lead in the Laser standings over Javier Hernandez (ESP). The Rolex Miami OCR featured 104-boats in the Laser class, and was the largest fleet on display. Rasmus Myrgren (SWE) finished third in the Medal Race to win gold. Myrgren sits third in the standings on 20 points followed by Julio Alsogaray (ARG) and Tom Burton (AUS) on 19 points.

With two fifth place finishes in Melbourne and Miami Jessica Crisp (AUS) leads the women’s RS:X standings on 32 points. At the Rolex Miami OCR Marina Alabau (ESP) put in a dominant display by winning six out of nine races. She claimed gold ahead of Bryony Shaw (GBR) for 20 points that puts her second in the series. Huali Zhu (CHN) is in third on 20 points and Shaw sits fourth.

With only Sebastian Wang-Hansen (NOR) competing in both Sail Melbourne and the Rolex Miami OCR in the men’s RS:X, the standings are very close. Wang-Hansen is in tenth on 16 points but only four points behind series leader Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED) who won gold in Miami and King yin Chan (HKG) who claimed the honours in Melbourne.

Women’s Match Racing and Star class were not on display at Sail Melbourne so whoever won gold at US SAILING’s Rolex Miami OCR would jump to the top of the standings.

Claire Leroy, Marie Riou and Elodie Bertrand (FRA) beat Anna Tunnicliffe, Deborah Capozzi and Molly Vandemoer 3-1 in the Final of the women’s match racing. And Sally Barkow, Alana O’Reilly and Elizabeth Kratzig overcame Lucy Macgregor, Mary Rook and Kate Macgregor in the Petit Finals.

Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) had already clinched gold in the 57-boat Star class before the Medal Race in Miami. Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen (SWE) took the silver. Scheidt is a five-time Olympic medallist while Loof is an Olympic medallist and a two-time world champion. Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn (CAN) collected the bronze.

In the Paralympic classes:

Damien Seguin and Matthew Bugg both have 20 points at the top of the 2.4 Metre standings. Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch (AUS) and Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell (GBR) are level on 38 points after the Australian’s won gold at the Rolex Miami OCR and the British duo won bronze. And in the Sonar John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas lead the Standings on 20 points.

To watch video highlights of the Rolex Miami OCR visit our Youtube channel.

And keep up-to-date on all the ISAF Sailing World Cup regattas here

ISAF Sailing World Cup Standings

2.4mR

470 Men

470 Women

49er

Finn

Laser

Laser Radial

SKUD

Sonar

Star

RS:X Men

RS:X Women

Women's Match Race