FOUR WAY RACE FOR TORNADO BRONZE

by Ian Grant on 24 Sep 2000 A serious wrist injury suffered in a pre-regatta bicycle accident has not prevented the tenacious French skipper Pierre Pennec from being involved in a four way battle for the Tornado class Bronze Medal.

Pennec would not accept medical advice that the injury would prevent him from sailing in the Sydney Olympics.

He had a special brace made to support the wrist and while this has restricted his strength the French catamaran skilfully sailed by the talented skipper and crewmate Yann Guichard remain as a major contender for the Bronze Medal.

Pennec, now known as ‘Captain Hook’, holds fourth place with 36 penalty points lost and needs to beat the World title winning German crew of Roland Gaebler and Rene Schwall by six places to win a deserved Bronze Medal.

Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher of Austria, winners of the the Gold Medal with two races to spare on Friday did not compete yesterday when the Australian combination of Darren Bundock and John Forbes won the Silver Medal.

The Australian’s who celebrated Australia’s third medal win at successive Olympics are not expected to sail in today’s final which will make the task even more difficult for the French (36pts) New Zealand (41pts) and the United States (43pts) to upset the World title winning Germans.

Particularly when Gaebler and Schwall have sailed impressively to record a 2-1-2 in the last three races but even the best tactical intentions have been stressed and damaged by the unpredictable light winds which leaves the Bronze Medal in some doubt until the final leg of the last race on Sydney Harbour today.