Brits position for final day shoot-out

by RYA/Lindsey Bell on 13 Apr 2006 British sailors took advantage of perfect racing conditions on day four of the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma, Spain, on Wednesday (12 April), manoeuvring into podium positions in seven of the ten contested Olympic class events with two days of the regatta left to run.

The shifty and unstable wind conditions which had dominated much of the week’s racing today gave way to a superb 10-14 knot sea breeze, which Skandia Team GBR’s sailors appeared to thrive on heading into the last half of the regatta.

Nick Dempsey’s dominance in the men’s RS:X windsurf fleet continues, with the Olympic bronze medallist posting a 2,1,2 from his three races today to extend his lead to 13 points over nearest rival, Brazilian Ricardo Santos in second, and 28 points over third-placed sailor Tom Ashley of New Zealand.

But the 25-year-old from Weymouth still rued a missed opportunity from his day’s efforts: 'I should have won the last race,' he explained. 'It just didn’t go quite to plan. Some might have called it bad judgement, some might have called it bad luck, but I definitely should have had two race wins today.'

Currently in tenth place, development squad sailor Leo McCallin remains in contention for Friday’s final medal race, while in the women’s RS:X fleet there are just nine points separating the top six sailors, with Brits Lucy Horwood and Bryony in third and fifth respectively. Christine Johnson, currently in tenth place, will also be looking to make the cut for Friday.

In the 49er class, Olympic bronze medallists Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks revelled in the conditions today, finding themselves at the top of the leaderboard for the first time this week. The Weymouth-based European Champions recorded 3,1,6 from their three races to displace reigning World Champions Rodion Luka and Georgii Leonchuk of Ukraine from their overnight lead.

Exmouth duo Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes endured mixed fortunes, posting a fourth place in their first race, but being judged to have prematurely crossed the start line in the second race. Finally posting an 11th in the third race, they finished the day in eighth place overall, while Paul Campbell James and Mark Asquith, currently in 14th, are still pushing hard for a place on Friday’s 10-boat final medal race.

Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Victoria Rawlinson scored a 3,1,5 today to hold firm to their second place in the Yngling fleet, just two points adrift from first, but 29 points ahead of the Dutch boat currently in third. Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor, helmed by Greek Sophia Bekatorou in the absence of Shirley Robertson, are currently in tenth.

Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark enjoyed a great day in the women’s 470 fleet today, easily winning the first of the day’s races before posting a third and fifth to elevate them into third place overall. In the men’s 470 class, Nic Asher and Elliot Willis have also nudged into the podium positions, with the help of a bullet from their second race of the day.

European Champion Paul Goodison maintains his second place in the Laser fleet, while 19-year-old development squad sailor Nick Thompson made great gains today, up from 31st overnight to 13th and gunning for a first ever medal race on Friday.

The Finn class sees two Skandia Team GBR sailors – Ed Wright and Matt Howard – in the top ten, while a testing day for the Laser Radial and Tornado team members will give rise to some determined performances tomorrow (Thursday) as sailors strive to make the final cut and a shot at the medals on Friday.

Leading overall positions:

470 Men:
1 POR 22 Alvaro Marinho/Miguel Nunes 18 1 1 1 2 38 7 6
2 ISR 7 Gideon Kliger/Ehud Gal 21 10 1 1 1 10 3 5
3 GBR 816 Nic Asher/Elliott Willis 34 4 4 7 1 24 1 17
4 FRA 7 Nicolas Charbonnier/Olivier Bausset 37 9 10 12 9 3 5 1
5 NED 1 Sven Coster/Kalle Coster 39 7 3 10 2 5 23 12

470 Women:
1 FRA 4 Petitjean Ingrid/Douroux Nadège 11 3 3 1 2 2 2 1
2 NED 11 Marcelien De Koning/Lobke/Berkhout 21 1 1 2 1 13 9 7
3 GBR 819 Christina Bassadone/Saskia Clark 23 20 2 4 8 1 3 5
4 SWE 323 Therese Torgersson/Vendela Zachrisson 41 16 4 6 7 7 1 31
5 ISR 13 Adi Gilboa/Vered Bouskila 41 10 7 3 6 6 17 9

49er:
1 GBR 2 Chris Draper/Simon Hiscocks 25 4 8 5 2 1 3 3 1 6
2 ITA 3 Pietro Sibello/Gianfranco Sibello 29 OCS 1 1 3 2 2 12 6 2
3 UKR 1 Rodion Luka/Georgii Leonchuk 30 1 2 4 1 3 1 8 10 15
4 ESP 99 Iker Martinez/Xabi Fernandez 36 1 4 4 3 2 DNF 6 3 13
5 GER 6 Jan Peter Peckolt/Hannes Peckolt 37 8 5 1 5 8 7 2 DSQ
Other GBR
8 GBR 5 Stieve Morrison/Ben Rhodes 48 16 10 3 2 1 1 4 OCS 11
15 GBR 955 Paul Campbell James/Mark Asquith 63 5 1 8 8 15 2 20 14 10

Finn:
1 DEN 2 Jonas Hoegh-Christensen 19 29 2 1 1 1 4 10
2 ESP 100 Rafael Trujillo Villar 28 21 1 2 2 18 1 4
3 CAN 41 Christopher Cook 37 7 8 5 6 8 2 8
4 SLO 5 Vincec Gašper 37 32 5 7 11 3 5 6
5 GBR 111 Ed Wright 46 3 9 10 4 9 6 12
Other GBR
9 GBR 550 Matt Howard 56 18 15 9 9 6 3 14

Radial:
1 BEL 185785 Evi Van Acker 28 3 1 3 5 5 8 5 5 1
2 GRE 181568 Virginia Kravarioti 33 9 3 2 3 2 3 7 6 7
3 FIN 184712 Sari Multala 48 10 5 21 3 2 1 32 3 3
4 USA 184544 Anna Tunnicliffe 63 7 2 1 1 3 10 20 20 19
5 USA 183275 Paige Railey 64 8 2 1 4 8 1 12 1 DNE
12 GBR 181920 Laura Baldwin 79 1 4 6 6 DNF 5 9 27 21

Laser:
1 POL 185191 Maciej Grabowski 15 1 2 2 1 1 6 10 1 1
2 GBR 186101 Paul Goodison 32 3 1 1 7 7 2 5 6 8
3 GRE 183977 Adonis Bougiouris 35 7 6 7 DSQ 2 2 6 3 2
4 GER 181634 Alexander Schlonski 56,6 RDG 18 8 2 3 12 4 15 4
5 GRE 181566 Jason Georgaris 67 8 5 6 4 13 12 17 2 25
Other GBR
13 GBR 185652 Nick Thompson 98 20 35 19 11 6 15 12 8 7

RSX Men:
1 GBR 21 Nick Dempsey 9 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 2
2 BRA 1 Ricardo Santos 22 1 4 2 8 4 3 3 5
3 NZL 181 Tom Ashley 37 7 1 5 5 5 10 8 6
4 POL 126 Przemyslaw Miarczynski 38 8 5 3 4 6 15 9 3
5 UKR 19 Oberemko Maksim 39 4 3 5 2 8 13 20 4
Other GBR
10 GBR 20 Leo Mccallin 58 2 10 3 11 15 9 17 8

RSX Women:
1 ESP 5 Marina Alabau 38 5 17 2 8 5 6 4 8
2 UKR 9 Maslivets Olga 41 10 7 3 1 3 10 7 15
3 GBR 95 Lucy Horwood 45 28 6 1 3 2 31 1 4
4 ESP 1 Blanca Manchon Dominguez 45 13 3 4 16 6 9 5 5
5 GBR 94 Bryony Shaw 46 2 4 6 10 7 11 6 11
Other GBR
10 GBR 93 Chrsitine Johnson 78 12 22 9 9 4 13 12 19

Tornado:
1 GRE 7 Paschalidis Iordanis/Trigonis Kostas 31 1 5 6 DNC 12 3 3 1
2 GER 1094 Roland Gaebler/Gunnar Struckmann 41 12 11 2 3 5 11 4 5
3 AUS 8 Bundock Darren/Ashby Glenn 45 3 20 4 OCS 2 5 1 10
4 FRA 7 Guichard/Guyader Alexandre 51 33 13 1 2 3 17 2 13
5 RUS 97 Kirilyuk Andrey/Ushkov Valery 53 4 9 11 10 7 22 10 2
GBR
12 GBR 441 Rob Wilson/Mark Bulkeley 86 OCS 19 10 6 6 23 18 4
17 GBR 442 Andy Walsh/Ed Barney 108 18 30 15 13 14 4 16 28
29 GBR 1 Leigh Mcmillan/Will Howden 162 2 14 12 8 DNF DNC DNC DNC

Yngling
1 USA 337 Sally Barkow/Carrie Howe/Debbie Capozzi 16 4 1 2 OCS 1 4 2 2
2 GBR 12 Sarah Ayton/Victoria Rawlinson/Sarah Webb 18 3 2 1 3 6 3 1 5
3 NED 11 Mandy Mulder/Anneureke Bes/Floortje Hendriksen 47 2 8 15 OCS 5 5 8 4
4 RUS 4 Basalkina Anna/Loukashova Galina/Maximova Ekaterina 48 6 7 3 9 16 2 15 6
5 GER 261 Schuemann; Ulrike/Kappel; Runa/Höpfner; Ute 50 9 5 5 6 13 1 11 14
Other GBR
10 GBR 9 Sophie Bekatorou/Annie Lush/Lucy Macgregor 68 7 DSQ 6 13 2 13 16 11
15 GBR 14 Gemma Farrell/Rachel Larman/Rachel Howe 86 5 10 20 14 15 9 17 16

420:
1 ESP 51694 Jose A. Medina/Antonio Del Castillo 15 1 OCS 4 1 3 2 2 1 1
2 ESP 51124 David Omedes/Carlos Gallart 26 3 2 18 3 4 4 5 4 1
3 POR 52378 António Matos Rosa/Francisco Lacerda 29 3 OCS 1 10 2 1 1 6 5
4 ESP 52386 Francisco Cardenes/Juan M. Cerezo 33 5 5 4 9 2 OCS 3 2 3
5 ESP 52246 Felipe Parejo/Pablo Fernández Palacios 40 8 4 2 1 7 OCS 2 5 11

Dragon:
1 GER 1030 Markus Wieser/Robert Stark/Thomas Auracher 6 1 2 1 2 18
2 DEN 66 Frank Berg/Soeren Kaestel/Niels Budde- Lond 20 5 7 23 7 1
3 GBR 705 Hoj-Jensen/Eduardo Caro/Jesper Bemoix 22 7 3 12 6 6
4 DEN 375 Jørgen Schönherr/Jan