Sail for Gold - Inconsistent day 1 for Patience and Bithell

by Paul Smith, Sportsbeat on 5 Jun 2012 Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta 2012, hosted by WPNSA in Dorset, Great Britain is currently underway. Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell endured an inconsistent first day of racing in Weymouth and Portland.

The 470M duo, who will compete for Team GB at the 2012 home Olympic Games, won their first race, but came 11th in their second.

It leaves the 25 year olds ranked 10th overall going into today's second day in Weymouth, at the Olympic venue.
Aberdeen-born Patience admitted it had been a frustrating start, particularly as they were forced onshore for a prolonged period of time.

He said: 'It was a pretty difficult day with the weather, the forecast wasn't great with the winds due to swing almost 180 degrees and it started to do that.

'We won the first race so that's fine. You can't win the regatta on the first day but you can lose it, so we are happy to have got a bullet under our belts, but there is a long way to go; it's a marathon.

'I think that any race we do is important. You always want to win and you want to learn so by that logic any race in any regatta is important, but it's not the Olympics yet.

'But we would love to come away from this week having had a good series under our belt and hopefully that means standing on the podium with a medal.'