ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres - 470 Women provide silver lining
by RYA on 28 Apr 2014
Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre (GBR), 470 Women - 2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres Thom Touw
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At the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres 2014, a broken finger proved no problem for Eilidh McIntyre and as she and Sophie Weguelin closed off an impressive week with a silver medal in the 470 Women’s event on Saturday (26 April).
Theirs was the sole piece of silverware for the British Sailing Team from the final day of competition at the southern French venue, and adds to the gold and bronze won by Britain’s Paralympic Classes sailors in the Sonar and 2.4mR events on Friday.
The European bronze medallists Weguelin and McIntyre confirmed their participation at this final World Cup event of the season at the very last minute, after McIntyre broke her finger in a training accident back in February, missing the Palma edition of the series three weeks ago.
The 19-year-old had the pin removed just three days before the start of the event, leaving the pair short of practice prior to competition, but sailed a steady series to see them go into the final ten-boat medal race all but assured of a podium finish.
The New Zealand World and Olympic Champions Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie had a comfortable 12 point buffer going into the final day, so the British crew was intent on protecting their silver from the third placed American duo of Anne Haeger-Briana Provancha, rather than risking it to chase gold.
The British duo sailed a solid medal race to finish second, and consolidate their second place overall.
'It was a tough race actually – the Americans had a little chase of us at the start but we got away cleanly in the end so that was great,' Weguelin explained.
'A few boats went back [at the start] and at one point it looked like it was possible to win the event, but our main focus was on defending the silver medal.
'It’s been a big time off for us unexpectedly, so we know we’ve got more to work on. Our boat-handling was a bit scrappy and at times we were a bit annoyed with ourselves, but that’s only natural and there’s plenty to work on going into the season.'
McInytre echoed her teammate’s thoughts: 'It’s been a really fantastic week. We’ve sailed really well but just started to get a bit tired towards the end of the week as our sailing fitness isn’t really there. But we’re so pleased – to do so well in spite of that is really brilliant, and we’ve got lots of work on during May in our training.
'We’re in a great position [for the season], especially as we feel we weren’t a million miles off. We were right there during the week and that’s a really positive place to be.'
After a good start to the week in the remaining Olympic Classes, Britain’s sailors endured a difficult finals series to leave them needing some strong performances and a bit of luck if they were to make the podium elsewhere on the final day.
The Nacra 17 duo of Ben Saxton-Hannah Diamond, 49erFX crew Charlotte Dobson-Sophie Ainsworth and 49er pairing John Pink-Stuart Bithell went into the final day’s ten-boat medal racing with a chance to break into the top three, but it was a case of what might have been.
Pink and Bithell, plus their teammates Dylan Fletcher-Alain Sign and Dave Evans-Ed Powys, all improved their overall positions after three steady finals races for the 49er class. Pink and Bithell were fifth overall, Fletcher and Sign ended their event in seventh, and a race win for Evans and Powys helped them into eighth place from tenth at the start of the day.
Fletcher admitted he was frustrated after he and Sign enjoyed an impressive start to their Hyeres title defence.
'We started really well and were pretty surprised at how we tailed off in the finals series whereas we normally do the opposite, like in Palma, where we were climbing through the week. We normally look forward to finals as it’s an opportunity to sail against everyone in the fleet and move up a bit.
'We’ve got to sit down and look at why it happened. We’re still scratching our heads as we weren’t up to our usual standards, so I’m sure we’ll be chatting lots of the way home and sorting out our plan of attack for the rest of the summer.'
Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth were unable to improve on their fourth place in the 49erFX class, with Kate Macgregor and Katrina Best also in final day action, finishing tenth after their first medal race day as a crew.
Britain qualified three boats in the Nacra 17 fleet, with world silver medallists Ben Saxton and Hannah Diamond disappointed not to improve on their fifth place going into the final day. They end their event in sixth, with Lucy Macgregor-Andrew Walsh ninth and Pippa Wilson-John Gimson tenth.
Luke Patience and Elliot Willis enjoyed an impressive medal race in the 470 men’s event, finishing second to elevate them to sixth overall – the best position they could have achieved heading into the final day.
'From the start of the week it’s felt like we’ve been involved in a bit of a street fight – tricky conditions – and we feel like we’ve been battling, either back into a race where the wind has shifted up the first beat, or claws in digging,' explained the two-time World Champion Willis, competing at just his second event with Patience since they teamed up in February.
'It was great to finish it off the medal race and doing the maximum we could to pull up. We had good speed, a good start, and good execution of what we wanted to do today.'
Nick Thompson also sailed a solid medal race in the Laser class, finishing third to consolidate overall fifth, while Podium Potential sailor Hannah Snellgrove made the most of her first World Cup medal race opportunity in the Laser Radial class.
The Lymington sailor finished seventh in the race to close out eighth overall, and said that qualifying for the ten-boat final was a real lift.
'It’s an honour to be racing against girls I was reading about when I was a Youth Radial sailor,' she enthused.
'It has been a tough week with lots of ups and downs, so it’s been a real confidence boost going in to the rest of the season.'
Nick Dempsey was also in final day action in the RS:X men’s windsurfing event, finishing seventh in the final race and tenth overall.
RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park rued some missed opportunities at this World Cup event, and admitted he would have hoped to be leaving with more silverware, but was confident that the team would continue to build and improve ahead of the key events of the 2014 season.
'While we’ve been saying all along this is not an outcome regatta, from the positions we were in at the end of qualifying you could have expected that we would have had a better finishing positions than we did.
'Clearly that’s something that the coaches are going to have to look at with their sailors. That said, I don’t think that necessarily some of those finishing positions represent the progress that’s been made by some of the sailors,' Park explained.
'Pink and Bithell got together in the 49er just before Christmas and it’s fantastic to see that each time they go and race they do slightly better, so to be sixth running into this final medal stage is fantastic. It’s great to see Sophie and Eilidh having come back from an injury lay off and fighting out to win the event, and it’s good to see the Paralympic sailors doing well also.'
Park continued: 'There are ups and downs and justifications for all the individual classes, but at the end of the day we would have liked to have thought that we would have come away with more than one medal in the Olympic Classes, so there’s a little bit of work to go on there. But we’re still pretty comfortable that we’re on track for the Worlds and the Test Event later on in the year when those things will need to be addressed by then and people will need to deliver the performances that we believe that they’re capable of.'
'What is interesting is that there isn’t a dominance by any one particular country here. That does reflect the continuing rise in the level of competition – it’s getting ever harder to win and to dominate. But we have to be careful not to make excuses for things where we expect to perform better.'
Fleet racing - Women - 470