Delta Lloyd Regatta - Brits take five in Holland

by Lindsey Bell / RYA on 31 May 2010 Delta Lloyd Regatta saw Britain’s sailors pick up four more medals on the closing day of the ISAF Sailing World Cup event in Holland on Sunday (30 May) to bring their total medal tally to five in Medemblik.

Windsurfer Nick Dempsey and the women’s match racing trio of Lucy Macgregor, Nicky Muller and Ally Martin picked silver medals, with Bryony Shaw’s bronze from the women’s RS:X windsurfing and Helena Lucas’s bronze in the 2.4mR Paralympic class adding to the gold already won by 470 duo Nic Asher and Elliot Willis on Saturday night.

There was final day disappointment, however, in the Finn and Laser events though, with Ed Wright and Nick Thompson both missing out the podium spots.

Having cruised through the semi-final against Greece’s Sofia Bekatorou, Macgregor, Muller and Martin were on the back foot in the final with Anne-Claire le Berre, with the French team taking the first two matches to leave the Skandia Team GBR trio fighting back in the building breeze across the Ijsselmeer.

The British trio deployed some aggressive match race tactics to claw themselves back into contention, winning the third and fourth matches and force the decider in the best of five series, but it was le Berre who had the edge and took the gold.

'It was a great final in the end,' said Macgregor. 'We lost the first two so the pressure was on for the rest of the racing and we pulled back really well to win the next two after that. It was frustrating to lose the last race – we were winning initially and then lost it on the first downwind so it was game over from there really.

'It’s been a great week for us,' she continued. 'We have learnt a lot but today I think the difference really was that the three of us haven’t really sailed together enough – Annie Lush is away at the Louis Vuitton regatta at the moment. It’s been fantastic working with Nicky all week but I think the three of us just weren’t quite in sync at times today.'

Nick Dempsey opened the batting for Skandia Team GBR on Sunday’s final day, with a solid performance in the RS:X men’s windsurfing event pulling him into the silver medal spot from his overnight place of fifth.

The reigning World Champion made the best of the light wind conditions which prevailed at the start of the day, and recovered to third place in the 10-boat race even after re-crossing the startline fearing he had jumped the gun.

It’s Dempsey’s first World Cup medal of the year, and the 29-year-old was happy to have made the podium this week after some under par results at the previous Palma and French legs of the World Cup series.

'The week’s gone really well, it’s been a really tough week so I’m happy,' he admitted.

'It’s been a pretty tough year so far with underperforming in Palma after not being very well for a month and then still struggling in Hyeres. As the season goes on you get fitter and stronger and it’s nice to know that I’m almost back on track to where I’d like to be.

'It gives me a stack of confidence – I really have struggled to find form and find pace in some of the conditions. The light wind stuff is now starting to get really good again, I’m really very happy with all the light wind work we’ve been doing, but I’ve still got a lot of work to do in the stronger winds.'

Olympic bronze medallist Bryony Shaw, who broke into the top three positions for the first time yesterday, went into the medal race in the bronze medal position.

She managed to hold on to the overall third spot, in spite of having to take penalty turns after infringing her French rival Pauline Perron at the first windward mark, wither bronze now meaning she’s picked up three straight podium spots from the three European World Cup events so far.

'It’s been a really hard week – I only just got the red dot today from the win that I got yesterday,' said Shaw afterwards.

'It’s been hard to stay consistent in the really shifty offshore winds so it was good to finish on the podium finally. I’m tired but I’m happy!'

'I’d say I’m pretty strong in light wind conditions and it’s important to try and play to your strengths. Today I was making sure I kept an eye on the French girl who was closest to me in points, and just tried to stay relaxed and sail sensibly!'

Helena Lucas added a second bronze to the British medal tally from the 2.4mR Paralympic class. She picked up a ninth in the final race today – her worst finish of the regatta – but still it was enough to secure bronze by two points over Skandia Team GBR teammate Megan Pascoe.

'Getting a result here has been really key for me,' Lucas explained. 'We’ve got the IFDS World Championship here in July so to get a medal here before the IFDS Worlds give me great confidence going into the event.'

Nick Thompson ended his regatta in a disappointing fourth place in the Laser class, seeing a bad start to the medal race after the race committee started five minutes ahead of time. Thompson never managed to recover, and completed the medal race in ninth and outside of the medals after occupying the silver medal spot heading into the day.

Olympic, World and European Champion Paul Goodison won the medal race, to end his regatta in fifth overall.

Ed Wright also missed out on the podium after an initially strong showing in the Finn final – series leader Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic found himself languishing towards the back of the fleet at one point, which had allowed Wright a glimpse of gold, but the Croatian pulled back and Wright managed to get caught out on the final run and saw his medal hopes slide – he finished fourth.

'It was all looking so good at one point – Ivan was deep so I had the gold medal position,' he explained.
'But then, like so many times this week I got stuck in a windless hole and the others sailed around me so it was a pretty disappointing end.'

Fellow Skandia Team GBR Finn star Giles Scott saw a strong end to his regatta with a second in the medal seeing him into sixth overall, with development squad sailor Mark Andrews in eighth.

The 49er final saw three Skandia Team GBR crews racing. All three were out of medal contention heading into the medal race, but Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes saw the best of British fortunes, finishing third on the water to end their regatta in eighth place. Development squad duo Dave Evans and Ed Powys were the top British boat in seventh, with Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign in ninth overall.

'It’s been an interesting regatta with lots of changes in the schedule and sailors often having to be ready to sail at any time from 10am until 7pm,' surmised RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park.

'With the exception of the Star classes, in all the classes we competed in at some stage during the week we’ve been wearing a medal position vest showing that we’ve got a good crop of competitive sailors. However, as always it’s the finishing positions at the end of the regatta that count and in this regard there were a few missed opportunities.'

'Of particular frustration was Nick Thompson being disadvantaged by an error of the race committee when they started the race five minutes ahead of schedule and Nick, who was in silver medal position, was then late for the start. As a sport we must get these details right if we want the World Cup to succeed as a concept.

'Still, it was great to see Nic and Elliot getting back to form and winning a regatta in preparation for the 470 Worlds coming up, plus Lucy Macgregor’s team and Nick Dempsey back on the podium again having failed to medal at recent World Cups.'

'It’s also been encouraging to see the younger talents of Hannah Mills in the 470 and Mark Andrews in the Finn making the medal race for the first time this year.'

Skandia Team GBR medal tally

GOLD
Nic Asher-Elliot Willis (470 Men)

SILVER
Nick Dempsey (RS:X Men)
Lucy Macgregor-Nicky Muller-Ally Martin (Women’s Match Racing)

BRONZE
Bryony Shaw (RS:X Women)
Helena Lucas (2.4mR)

www.skandiateamgbr.com