Brits hold on to 49er top slot in Hyeres

by RYA/Lindsey Bell/GJN on 25 Apr 2006 Perfect race conditions on day two (Monday 24 April) of the 2006 French Olympic Sailing Week in Hyères gave rise to a shake up amongst the podium positions. Only in the 49er are the Brits holding a top place. The Soling is also looking good with GBR in second and fifth places. In the 2.4mR GBR are also in second and fifth and in the Finn second.

In the 15 knot easterly breeze, Skandia Team GBR's sailors kept hold of top three positions in five of the eleven contested classes, with Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes posting four top three results - including a bullet in the third race of the day - to top the 49er table. The Exmouth duo are ahead of the Danish Hansen brothers on countback, with John Pink-Alex Hopson in ninth, Olympic bronze medallists Chris Draper-Simon Hiscocks in tenth and overnight leaders Paul Campbell James and Mark Asquith eleventh after six races.

Yngling trio Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Emma Rawlinson - replacing sister Victoria who's studying for her medical exams - had a lucrative day on the water, pushing up into second place after the day's three races, in spite of incurring a penalty in the second.

'We played it a bit risky in the second, and had a close crossing with the Kiwi boat which ended up in us doing a 720,' Ayton explained. 'But otherwise, we're working well and building towards the Worlds in La Rochelle which should have pretty similar conditions to here.

'It's going really well so far. As we're sailing here with Emma, Victoria's sister, we're just trying to be cautious and trying to keep it simple - so in that respect we're really pleased to have won the last race of the day.'

In the Finn class, Ed Wright had an excellent day on the water, moving up from 18th overnight to a silver medal position today, while in the Laser Radial class, Laura Baldwin moved in the top three thanks to a third and a sixth from her two races.

Helena Lucas turned out another solid performance in the 2.4mR Paralympic class, scoring a bullet in her opening race before finishing behind main rival, Dutchman Thierry Schmitter, in the second.

'The first race was great, and I won quite easily thanks to some brilliant conditions, some big waves and some awesome surf downwind,' Lucas explained. 'The downwind legs were where I pulled out my biggest leads by just catching some good surf. In the second race I was just down on pace for some reason - not really sure why - but it was generally not a bad day!'

470 girls Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark made great gains today, posting a 2,1 to finish the day in ninth, which should be boosted even further once the discard kicks in. Pippa Wilson and Sheena Craig are also in a strong position, with a 15,4 to elevate them two positions to sixth from today's racing.

The 470 men improved on their first day's positions - Nic Asher and Elliot Willis move up to sixth from ninth yesterday, while development squad sailors Luke Patience and Chris Grube had a massive boost. The Scots-Welsh combination posted a 2,3,2 to raise them up from 75th last night to 11th at the close of play on Monday.

The Tornado course may have been gusting up to 21 knots, but Skandia Team GBR campaigners Rob Wilson-Mark Bulkeley and Andy Wright-Ed Barney continue to push for their berths in Friday's final medal race - in spite of Bulkeley taking a spill at the windward mark in the first race and leaving Wilson to negotiate the downwind leg single-handed until he could retrieve his crew from the water.

A mast breakage in the first race of the day for Laser European Champion Paul Goodison has seem him fall down the pecking order, at least until the discard takes effect, while windsurfers Nick Dempsey and Lucy Horwood have clawed their way back into contention in the RS:X class after a difficult first day. Olympic bronze medallist Dempsey currently lies in tenth, and Horwood is eleventh in the women's fleet.

Leading results after day 2:

Laser:
1 184675 SLINGSBY Tom 8 Australia
2 179403 ARAPOV Mate 12 MORNAR - Croatia
3 181580 LE BRETON Thomas 18 S R DE BREST - France
4 183177 GERITZER Andreas 18 UYCNS - Austria
5 185399 ROMERO Diego 19 Argentina

Radial:
1 182008 XU Lijia 18 CHINESE YACHTING ASS - China
2 184544 TUNNICLIFFE Anna 19 NCYC - United States Of America
3 181920 BALDWIN Laura 28 Great Britain
4 185828 WEIR Krystal 34 SANDRINGHAM YACHT CL - Australia
5 182711 ROSS Lisa 37 RNSYS - Canada

Finn:
1 SLO 5 VINCEC Gasper 20
2 GBR 111 WRIGHT Edward 27
3 DEN 2 HOEGH-CHRISTENSEN Jonas 29
4 CRO 25 MISURA Marin 31
5 FRA 73 FLORENT Guillaume 36

2.4mR:
1 NED 12 SCHMITTER Thierry 5
2 GBR 75 LUCAS Helena 7
3 NOR 102 ERIKSTAD Bjornar 15
4 NED 11 HOLSTEIJN Ruud 16
5 GBR 60 PASCOE Megan 18

RSX Men:
1 NED 7 BOUMAN Casper 5
2 POL 16 POLANOWSKI Michal 8
3 NZL 181 ASHLEY Tom 9
4 POL 126 MIARCZYNSKI Przemyslaw 10
5 BRA 1 SANTOS Ricardo 11

RSX Women:
1 ESP 5 ALABAU Marina 21
2 POL 8 KLEPACKA Zofia 26
3 POL 200 GALECKA Anna 30
4 FRA 4 PICON Charline 36
5 GRE 1 FREY Andonia 37

49er:
1 GBR 5 MORRISON Stevie, RHODES Ben 10
2 DEN 16 HANSEN Peter, HANSEN Soren 14
3 ESP 99 MARTINEZ DE LIZARDUY Iker, FERNANDEZ Xabier 17
4 ITA 3 SIBELLO Pietro, SIBELLO Gianfranco 19
5 GER 11 BAUR Marcus, GROY Max 22

Tornado:
1 AUS 8 BUNDOCK Darren, ASHBY Glenn 12
2 FRA 1 REVIL Xavier, ESPAGNON Christophe 23
3 GER 1101 POLGAR Johannes, SPALTEHOLZ Florian 24
4 GER 1094 GAEBLER Roland, STRUCKMANN Gunnar 30
5 GRE 7 PASCHALIDES Iordanis, TRIGONIS Konstantinos 36

470 Men:
1 ISR 7 KLIGER Gideon, GAL Udi 9
2 ITA 2 ZANDONA' Gabrio, TRANI Andrea 14
3 FRA 11 BONNAUD Benjamin, BONNAUD Romain 17
4 AUS 361 BELCHER Mathew, BEHRENS Nick 17
5 POR 22 MARINHO Alvaro, NUNES Miguel 20

470 Women:
1 JPN 4152 YOSHISAKO Yuka, OHKUMA Noriko 25
2 ITA 23 CONTI Giulia, MICOL Giovanna 31
3 CZE 1 SMIDOVA Lenka, KRATZIG Elizabeth 35
4 ISR 13 GILBOA Adi, BOUSKILA Vered 39
5 CHN 162 LI Xue, YU Yanli 40

Yngling:
1 USA 337 BARKOW Sally, HOWE Carrie, CAPOZZI Debbie 17
2 GBR 12 AYTON Sarah, RAWLINSON Victoria, WEBB Sarah 18
3 NED 11 THIES Annelies, FABER MARIJE, DE JONG PETRONELLA 22
4 GER 261 SCHUEMANN Ulrike, KAPPEL Runa, HOEPFNER Ute 24
5 GBR 9 HABERLAND Nancy, LUSH Annie, MACGREGOR Lucy 26

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