Windy World Cup opener as road to Rio reaches 100 day milestone
by Lindsey Bell 28 Apr 2016 07:14 AEST
27 April 2016
As Rio's 100 day Olympic countdown celebrations took place around the world, Britain's sailors were firmly focussed on the task at hand as racing got underway at the Sailing World Cup Hyeres on Wednesday.
The five-day regatta is one of just a handful of major events remaining before the Games showdown in August, and provides sailors with the opportunity to pit their progress and test their training refinements against their likely Rio rivals.
Luke Patience and Chris Grube signalled their intent in the 470 Men's fleet with a race win to get their regatta underway on Wednesday, following it up with a fifth place to see them into overall second after their opening day, while Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark enjoyed a solid opening day in the women's 470 event.
It was a windy and testing outing, as Clark explained, but with a sixth and a second from their two races, they were satisfied with their start to the regatta.
"We had about a 10-25 knot wind range and about 40 degree shifts. There was a big left breeze always trying to pulse in which sometimes would make it across and then retract."
"We're really focussing on a few of our processes at this regatta – especially around starting," said Clark, as she and Mills look to upgrade their 2012 silver into Rio gold.
"It's really exciting to hit 100 days to go, but also really scary. It really crystallises your mind what we've got left to achieve in these next 100 days. We've still got a lot to do – we've got three trips to Rio coming up in that time and the World Cup regatta in Weymouth, so still lots of training to get done and lots of racing to try and improve on all the areas that we've picked out as our weaknesses."
But with Clark preparing to compete at her third Games this summer, her second with Mills, that campaign experience will be invaluable as the hard work intensifies over the next three months.
"I think with this being my third Games I understand the prioritising a bit better than perhaps I did at my first Games. The most precious thing with all campaigns is time, inevitably it's always the thing you can't buy. We've still got lots to achieve in the next 100 days so we do need to have a really systematic approach to getting it all done."
RS:X windsurfer Nick Dempsey is also employing a relaxed but determined approach as he prepares to embark upon his fifth Olympic Games this summer.
"Your run in is never perfect, there are going to be glitches, and you're always desperate for it to be as good as it can be. But you've got to relax and what will be will be, we'll keep chipping away. We have three months to put it together and go with it.
"We're in a reasonable place, I'm sailing well tactically and technically. I just now need to round off the fitness stuff and get a bit fitter, I need to do a few more hours on the water. The gaps in between training become smaller, we keep everything moving forward and try not to go backwards at all!"
Dempsey described his opening day in Hyeres as 'not brilliant... but good fun racing' as he sits in eighth place overall.
"We had these two breezes fighting today which made it very unstable, and made it quite difficult to get three consistent results, which is why I didn't!" explained the 2012 silver medallist, who sits just behind teammate Tom Squires in the overall standings after day one.
Laser Radial World Champion Alison Young enjoyed a steady first day, with a second and a sixth seeing her in third place, while John Pink-Stuart Bithell, Dylan Fletcher-Alain Sign and James Peters-Fynn Sterritt are poised in third, sixth and ninth places respectively in the 49er event.
Bryony Shaw sailed a steady three races to kick off her RS:X women's event – she's placed sixth overall, with Laser World Champion Nick Thompson tenth after two races.
With the breeze building throughout the day, just one race was possible for the Nacra 17 fleet, with Ben Saxton-Nicola Groves and Rupert White-Kirstie Urwin tied in 11th in the overall standings, while just one race was possible for the Paralympic classes.
World Champions John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas took an early lead in the Sonar fleet, in spite of a jib blowout on the first downwind leg, while Helena Lucas picked up a fifth place in the 2.4mR fleet.
Racing will resume from 1100hrs (local) on Thursday 28 April, with the final races for the Paralympic classes on Saturday 30 April and the medal races for the Olympic classes on Sunday 1 May.
Live medal race coverage will be available on Sunday 1 May – see the YachtsAdnYachting.com homepage from 10am BST.
www.britishsailingteam.com