One wave does it for Ainslie in Finn Gold Cup

by Bob Ross on 28 Jan 2008
The remarkable British sailor Ben Ainslie, propelled by a gybe onto a wave in the last few seconds that sent him past New Zealander Dan Slater, snatched the point score lead in the Finn Gold Cup world championship on Port Phillip Bay today.

Going into the final race of the series, being sailed from Black Rock Yacht Club tomorrow the medal race confined to only the top ten sailors in the 82-boat fleet in this demanding single-handed class, which scores double points Ainslie leads with 35 points lost from Slater, 36.

While the two of them extended their lead slightly today over the next two sailors Pieter Jan Postma (Netherlands) and Jonas Christensen (Denmark), these two both still have winning chances.

Postma is on 43 points; Christensen, 45. The remaining qualifiers for the medal race are:
Chris Cook (Canada), 62; Johan Tillander (Sweden), 72; Aimilios Papathanasiou (Greece), 80;
Ed Wright (Great Britain), 84; Peer Moberg (Norway), 86 and Ivan Kijakovic (Croatia), 89.

Australian Olympic team member Anthony Nossiter with a 22nd placing in today'srace, sailed in a shifty breeze, dropped out of the top ten to 12th.

Officials delayed the start of race eight today more than two hours waiting for the light breeze, which swung from southwest to southeast and back to south, to settle in the southwest.

The breeze continued to shift as it built from seven knots at the start to more than 12 knots by the finish, with many of the favoured competitors, including Ainslie, caught out on the left as the wind backed to the right.

Daniel Birgmark (Sweden) led around all marks to win from Guillaume Florent (France) with Timothy Goodbody (Ireland) third.

With all of the above out of contention for the medal race, attention shifted to Ainslie's battle with Slater for the points lead. Slater rounded the first windward mark of the two-round windward-leeward course in a handy fifth place, with Ainslie 14th.

Ainslie picked up five places on the run and then, rather stay in the queue of the top boats heading right from the leeward mark gate, gamely tacked back through the pack of running boats heading into the gate to sail into clear air on the left.

He gained another four places on the second beat to round fifth, one place behind Slater. The pair battled down the last run, where unlimited pumping and boat rocking was allowed as the wind freshened over 12 knots.

Overlapped a few metres short of the finish, Ainslie gybed onto that last wave with momentum that carried him down its face to pass Slater and finish fourth, with Slater fifth.

Ainslie said: 'It's been such a tricky venue and it's just been about trying to get back to decent results and being as consistent as possible.'

He and Slater have been friends since they were teenagers when Ainslie won the Laser Radial world championship at Takapuna, Auckland, in 1993 with Slater second. Slater later beat him into second place at the ISAF Youth World Championship, on a tie-break of placings after they finished on equal points.

'We became good friends,' said Ainslie. 'I would go and train with him in Auckland during their summer and he would come over and train with me in the European summer.

'We are still good friends.'