POWER STRUGGLE FOR FINN GOLD MEDAL
by Ian Grant on 25 Sep 2000
Katrina Butler
Two of the Worlds best Olympic Finn dinghy helmsman Ian Percy of Great Britain and Mateusz Kusnierewicz of Poland have entered into a power struggle for the Gold Medal.
The 24 year old 95 kg supremely fit Englishman Percy has had the edge on the older and heavier defending Olympic Gold Medallist Kusnierewicz in the first 4 races where he has been on top of the race tactics to record a 2-1-9-2 compared with his rivals 1-4-11-8.
This has allowed Percy with the opportunity to win England's first Gold Medal in the physically demanding single hander which has been involved with the Olympic competition since Helsinki in 1952.
But the modern day Finn is a very scientific racing machine sailed by highly fit intelligent tacticians who understand where and when to take the advantage out of the many wind variations which have blown over the Sydney Harbour courses in the past four races.
Percy has shown this skill with his consistent starts and race placing's over a highly qualified list of rivals.
Despite being ranked 9th on the World standing's the Englishman who has valued the experience of long practice sessions on the race courses with his results in the Olympic competition.
His skill and endurance has produced the required boatspeed to now become the Gold Medal favourite after the second day of racing.
After four heats Percy has lost 14 penalty points while Kusnierewicz stands on 24 points with Belguim Atlanta Silver Medallist Sebastien Godefroid third on 27points
RESULTS (Provisional) : GBR 14pts 1, POL 24pts 2, BEL 27pts 3, SWE 29pts 4, FRA 29pts 5, TUR 36pts 6, USA 38pts 7, ITA 41pts 8, BRA 42pts 9, CRO 43pts 10.
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