Yngling Focus at Qingdao - Day Seven Report
by Andi Robertson 15 Aug 2008 08:39 PDT
9-21 August 2008
It took a long, long wait, from 1200hrs until five minutes before the time limit was due to expire, before the Yngling race got away, but the long time sitting around waiting for a breeze to arrive was worth it, for Britain’s Yngling girls Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson returned
to the Olympic Sailing Centre assured of a silver medal, and destined to
match race the Dutch team of Mandy Mulder, Annemieke Bies and Merel
Witteveen for gold in tomorrow Medal Race.
While the British girls made a good start, one third up from the pin end of
the line with good space, while their Dutch rivals were caught bow down and
speed building just seconds before the gun went and were initially buried,
so too the Americans who were in third, tacked in the last thirty seconds
and were down speed and second rank off the line.
But it was evident the British girls lacked some pace in the eight knots of
breeze. And on the second beat when the wind was even lighter they dropped
three places. Fifth means they go into the medal race tomorrow needing
only to beat the Dutch girls, the team which was formed late from a nine
way selection process where each spot on the Olympic boat was selected.
The British team have a great record. Ayton and Webb already have gold from
Athens, but they have also proven good at converting Medal Races to titles.
They won here in last year’s medal race at the 2007 Olympic Test Event when
the American girls had a self-inflicted OCS, and won their world title in
2007 in Cascais when they had one boat to beat.
Pippa Wilson reinforced what it will be down to:
"It is basically who beats who. We will have to see what the conditions are in the morning and take the race from there, and see how best to approach. We have done as much preparation in that environment was we can do."
"I think tomorrow we have one thing to try and do and we all know that we
can do it and we had just hold together as a team. We will hold together as
a team. We are very, very close as a team and so we will just continue to
focus on the job and do everything we can and we have learned everything we
can in the year leading up to this. We have been in this situation a couple
of medal races before so I think we just get our heads down and seeing what
we can do tomorrow."
And when asked if she feels nervous today and how will they cope tomorrow:
"I have a few butterflies, but that is healthy that just makes you realise
you are still alive, just try to remain focussed."
"We are in gold or silver going in to the medal race and that is great
position to be going in to the medal race the day before. It is just
between us and the Dutch for gold and silver."
Is the pressure off now that a medal is secured:
"I think that we put enough pressure on ourselves to win gold. every day
that we sail, obviously it is great to be in that position, but we want
gold so we will do everything that we can to make that happen. It is what is been about for us, for Great Britain, for everyone that has supported us, that is always what our focus has been about, we will see what tomorrow brings."
On their fifth place today, behind the Dutch winners, Pippa said:
"We made a slight error with our sail selection and so were a bit
compromised on speed, we overestimated the wind speed a bit. Because the
race officer was in a hurry to get the race off we did not have much time
to make that decision, we were evidently pretty slow but we hung in there
and ground out a result. So it was a tough race to be down speed but we hung in there and are
really, really pleased with the way that we are sailing and racing."
"I am very lucky to be with them for the last year and a half, and have
learned a lot from their attitude and being in this environment but we all
just see the same things on the water. And just want to win whether it is
Olympic medals or whatever race. As soon as we are out there we will just
be completely focussed on that. We are pretty on an even keel when it comes
to wanting to win. We all just really want gold. I think we have yet to have a chat, I don’t know what the tactical plays will be. We have to sit down and decide."
Yngling coach Paul Brotherton explains their thoughts and possible
strategies for the medal race, and looks at what happened in Race 8:
"It would have been lovely if today would have been golden and to have gone
into tomorrow with a nice gap behind us, but it is all good. If we had been
offered a position with an assured medal on the last race I’d have bitten
your arm off, and today was just one in that series of races that got us in
that position, another counter."
"We just made the wrong sail choice. You either go for the medium or the
light. We had to look at the situation and we made the call and got it
wrong. We get more right than wrong but you just have to take that one on
the chin. Strangely enough the Dutch only ever use their medium whether it
is light or not. I think that moreover the Dutch got there out the start,
got the first cross while the girls had the French nipping at their heels
going around the windward mark, the French took them up, they lost five or
six lengths, suddenly it was easy for the Dutch and difficult for us."
"Obviously we have to go out there and see how the situation develops.
Clearly. I think we have to put in plan which ensures we beat the Dutch.
That is what it boils down to. It will be just down to the four of us.
That is the way that it has worked. We have worked on a number of different
options and scenarios, them coming at us, or us going at them."
On the possible conditions off the breakwater where the medal race is
sailed he explained:
"I would imagine it will be light. You take that as read. It will be very
busy at the back of the line. Then it is the usual stuff: start well,
handle the boat well, make reasonable decisions, and go fast and you will
do well. And those are the four things that we have worked bloody hard on. We have a
sufficient training for the medal race, the girls are happy with their boat
on boat skills, with the rule situations they might find themselves in.
They had a tie in Cascais and they converted that one, and they converted
here last year, and they converted at the Europeans."