London Olympics 2012 - Belcher and Page in familiar territory

by ISAF on 5 Aug 2012 Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page (AUS) end the third day of Men's 470 racing at the London Olympics 2012 sailing competition in the familiar top spot, four points clear of Great Britain's Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell.

The Australians had a fantastic day on the water taking both race wins as they made it three in a row for eight points. 'It's a great position to be in,' said Belcher. 'We haven't lost an event all year and that gives us great confidence, we feel very comfortable in the yellow jersey, it's not going to stop us sleeping at night but we're also experienced enough to know that there's still four races to go.'

Belcher and Page came into the competition as the pair to beat and they're not fazed by that status, 'We're just taking each day and each race as it comes, we're sailing well and it's no real surprise that we're in the position we're in.'

Patience and Bithell continue with consistent racing and are just four points behind the Australians with a discarded fourth to their discarded ninth.

On their day Patience said, 'The Australian's cracked out a couple of bullets, but we've come with another solid day and we're happy. We finished six races with a fourth as our worst. We'd have bit the hand off someone if they'd told us that before, but the train keeps rolling.'

An interesting fight for third is on-going as Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders (NZL) round off the podium on 31 points but Matthias Schmid and Florian Reichsteaedter (AUT), Gabrio Zandona and Pietro Zucchetti (ITA), Alvaro Marinho and Miguel Nunes (POR) and Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos (POR) are in close contention.

It'll be a day of rest for the Men's 470 fleet tomorrow.

Results here
ISAF website