2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final - Golden treble for GB sailors

by Lindsey Bell on 2 Nov 2015 Great Britain’s sailors secured a golden treble at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi on Sunday (First November).

Women’s windsurfer Bryony Shaw and kiteboard racer Olly Bridge retained their 2014 titles at the series-ending finale in the Emirati capital, while Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark also claimed victory in the 470 Women’s event in their first World Cup Final appearance, at what was just the second edition of the event.

A fourth British medal – bronze – also went to Tom Squires in the RS:X Men’s windsurfing event, with the Oxford sailors having to fight back up the standings after illness on Saturday saw him lose the overall lead.

Bryony Shaw’s gold in Abu Dhabi caps off a successful couple of weeks in the Middle East, having secured silver at the RS:X World Championships just last week.

The 32-year-old Olympic bronze medallist dominated her fleet, winning seven of the series races including Sunday’s final medal race to take gold by nine points over Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini.

She was delighted with her all-round form: “It’s been a really tough week with really close competition. I’m pleased to have won the medal race and be taking home the gold.

“I’ve been successful in the light winds and in the planing, and that’s been the highlight of the week – that we’ve had some really nice planing conditions, and some really nice racing with the other girls,” Shaw explained.

“I can take that forward into my next bit of training and tick a few boxes feeling good about my season.”

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark also add World Cup Final gold to their recent World Championship silver medal success, beating the Austrian World Champions Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar in the process.

The 2012 silver medallists Mills and Clark sailed a steady series, posting all scores inside the top three, and rounded off their title with a third place in the medal race to claim victory by six points over the Austrian duo.

“It’s really exciting to win anything, especially here at the World Cup Final,” said Clark.

“It’s been a great regatta for us. It wasn’t a massive fleet but it’s still been good racing and a good pressure final race for us.

Mills added: “Any time you can win an event is a really big boost, so we’re super happy and it’s been an amazing week here.

“We’ll now head back home for a month, and then we’re back to Rio in December. There’s a regatta there and we’ll do some training beforehand.”

Amy Seabright and Anna Carpenter were also in action in the 470 Women’s event, finishing fifth overall.

Exmouth’s Olly Bridge won the decisive medal race to retain his open kiteboarding title and round off the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final at Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club.

“Some people were quite late on the startline whereas I was on the startline,” Bridge said of the medal race.

“I was able to get ahead on the reach and then once I was downwind I had quite a big lead and quite a lot of space.”

Sixth in the RS:X Men’s windsurfing final medal race was enough for Tom Squires to break back into the top three positions and take bronze. Leading the event for the first two days, Squires suffered illness on the third and penultimate day to see him drop outside of the medal spots but fought back to the third step of the podium today. Teammate Joe Bennett was sixth overall.

Elsewhere, Ed Wright finished fourth in the Finn fleet, the Hunter brothers Rory and Neil, and Jack Hawkins-Chris Thomas were fifth and sixth respectively in the 49er class.

Nick Thompson was sixth in the Laser event, and Alison Young concluded the Laser Radial event in eighth.