Ainslie wins shortened Finn Gold Cup

by Robert Deaves on 19 Sep 2005 Today in Moscow, Ben Ainslie created his own record, winning the Finn Gold Cup, arguably one of dinghy sailing's hardest events and most coveted trophy, for the fourth time in a row, courtesy of a shorterend series.

Eighteen months ago in Rio, Ainslie made history by winning the Finn Gold Cup for the third time in a row - only the second person to do so in the event's 48 year history, equalling the record set by Jorg Bruder (BRA) between 1970 and 1972.

With a light northerly light wind in the morning, the Gold and Silver fleets set sail for the final race of the 2005 Finn Gold Cup. The temperature had dropped to three degrees overnight, so those sailors who had only brought summer sailing gear found the day rather cold.

The Gold fleet sat around for over two hours before a race could be started, as winds changed from one minute to the next, varying by over 70 degrees; leaving race officials and competitors waiting around in cold air for some stability.

Finally, at just after 13.00 hours, the postponement came down and racing got underway. Series leader Ainslie commented, ‘in these conditions I was going to try to control Emilios [the only man who could beat him] from the start.’

At the four minute signal, the two were locked together in their own match race. Ainslie succeeded in delaying Emilios Papathanasiou’s (GRE) start, but picked up a penalty himself. ‘I wasn’t sure if our boats touched, but I did the turns anyway to make sure.’

Both started well behind the fleet, with Papathanasiou banging the left hand corner in a bid to find a large enough shift to get him back to the front.

Ainslie played the shifts and looked ahead half way up the beat. Winds died again and admitting defeat, the race officer abandoned racing. ‘It was a huge relief when they abandoned,’ Ainslie admitted later. ‘With the wind we have had here this week, anything could have happened.’

So Ainslie got the title in a shortened series to make history in being the only sailor to win four Finn Gold Cup's - in successive years. He won in Athens (2002), Cadiz (2003), Rio de Janeiro (2004) and now Moscow and second placed Papathanasiou is left to wonder about what could have been...

Ainslie's coach David Howlett commented, ‘Ben’s outright professionalism is the key to his success.’

Ainslie concluded, ‘The organisation is great, I liked the sailing centre, but the race conditions were very difficult. I am very happy that I could cope with the wind and win.’

This was Papathansiou's best Finn Gold Cup result to date, so he is still looking for that world championship win which continues to elude him. Third place went to Chris Cook (CAN)in his first major championship medal win, being one of the few sailors at the event to find any sort of consistency.

Interestingly, Ainslie is one of many America's Cup sailors taking time out from their America's Cup day jobs to sail this event. In fact, five of them have won races here; from the Italian +39 syndicate, Rafael Trujillo (ESP), Andrew Simpson (GBR), Chris Brittle (GBR) and Antony Nossiter (AUS) have all won individual races. In addition, both Ainslie and Kevin Hall (USA) - who finished 20th - are with Emirates Team New Zealand.

Before the regatta, ISAF World Ranked No 1, Jonas Hoegh-Christensen had commented, ‘sailing against Ben is like biking against Lance (Armstrong), playing basket against (Michael) Jordan, driving against (Michael)Schumacher or playing golf against Tiger (Woods).

'More and more when you look good in a race, you start looking around to see if Ben is close to you. If he is not, be ready to get a big shift not going your way. Ben is already a legend in sailing and he will probably be the biggest ever - but bare in mind that legends do get beaten.

'I think Ben looks unbeatable because he has the highest ground level in the world. The rest of us just have to turn it up a level or two to beat him. If we didn't think that he could be beaten we should start doing something else.’

Finally, a big thank you to Moscow, Moscow Sailing School and the literally hundreds of helpers, staff and officials who made this championship possible.

While the sailors expected difficult sailing conditions, the magnitude of the welcome, along with the organisation, took them completely by surprise. Moscow Sailing School has a first class facility here, and have excelled in running a fabulous regatta, to which the Finn Class has been honoured to be invited.

Next year's Finn Gold Cup in in the beautiful town of Split, in Croatia. Will Ainslie turn up and try to make it five in a row? Watch this space...

Final Gold Group Overall leaders:

1 GBR Ben Ainslie 17 pts

2 GRE Papathanasiou Emilios 21

3 CAN Christopher Cook 42

4 POL Waclav Szukiel 54

5 CZE Michal Hruby 58

6 NZL Dan Slater 60

7 ESP Rafael Trujillo Villar 60

8 AUS Joshua Beaver 64

9 SWE Daniel Birgmark 65

10 CRO Marin Misura 66

*17 AUS Anthony Nossiter 82

*45 AUS Richard Ironmonger 164

Silver fleet

*45 AUS John Shallvey 297

Full results at http://www.finngoldcup2005.ru/eng/index.html

*Amended by Sail-World