Please select your home edition
Edition
Excess Catamarans

Gimson and Burnet "motivated" after Euros fourth

by British Sailing Team 6 Oct 2020 06:53 AEDT 28 September - 4 October 2020
British Team at Forward WIP Europeans 2020 © Tobias Stoerkle

Nacra 17 world champions John Gimson and Anna Burnet said they will "push harder" this winter after missing the podium at the European Championships by one point.

The pair, picked to represent Team GB at Tokyo 2020, admitted to being disappointed not to leave Attersee, Austria, with a medal - but said it gave them "great motivation" as they head to Italy to continue their training.

Gimson and Burnet were second overall and top European crew going into the final day, but with six points splitting the top six teams after five days of close racing the podium places were all up for grabs.

Attersee threw all manner of weather at the crews over the regatta, and the final day was no different with a 7am start allowing for two races before the wind died.

Racing then resumed with the afternoon breeze - and with only two results outside the top ten over 12 races it looked like Gimson and Burnet were on for more silverware.

However, arch rivals Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti of Italy pulled off a string of top five results to leapfrog to the top of the leaderboard, followed by France's Quentin Delapierre and Manon Audinet and fellow Italians Vittorio Bissaro and Maelle Frascari.

With one point separating them from the podium, Gimson and Burnet were forced to settle for fourth place - but vowed to learn from the experience as they continue their quest for glory at Tokyo 2020.

"Light, wacky wind is the condition we find hardest as a team, so we were keen to test ourselves at this Europeans," said Gimson, 37, from Congleton in Cheshire.

"Since March we've put a lot of focus on improving our speed in light winds so it was extremely positive to win the light winds day.

"A shame to miss the podium by one point with the top four boats only separated by a few points, but at this stage, going into the winter training period, it's great motivation to push harder. There's a lot of analysis to do in the next few days but we already feel we have good clarity on our goals for the winter training and this Europeans has cemented that."

In the 49erFX fleet, sole British representatives Megan Brickwood and Steph Orton finished a respectable 19th, just eight points off the top ten.

"We feel like we've shown real progress and raced well, getting an average score of 11th in a tricky venue," said Orton, 24, from Chichester, West Sussex. "Although it was slightly disappointed to slip six places in the last two races to finish 19th overall, we finished eight points off of tenth place which just shows how close the racing was. We're super happy to be back racing and loved every minute of it."

Full results:

Related Articles

Five-medal haul for British Sailing Team
Promising signs at the Paris 2024 test event Britain's elite sailors brought home five medals from the Paris 2024 test event - a promising sign just one year out from next summer's Games. Posted on 17 Jul 2023
Chasing Tokyo documentary
Revealing the rollercoaster journey of British Olympic sailors The rollercoaster journey of the British Sailing Team and its Tokyo 2020 athletes is revealed in new behind-the-scenes film Chasing Tokyo, now released. Posted on 29 Jul 2022
Tokyo stars announce new line-ups for Paris tilt
Olympic champion sailors Dylan Fletcher and Eilidh McIntyre reveal teammates Olympic champion sailors Dylan Fletcher and Eilidh McIntyre have revealed the teammates they will pair up with for a shot at a second gold medal. Posted on 16 Feb 2022
British Sailing Team welcomes Tokyo postponement
Olympic Games delayed to 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic The British Sailing Team welcomes the news of the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Posted on 24 Mar 2020
Scott to take on world's best at Finn Gold Cup
It will be the first world championships he's competed in since taking gold at the Rio Olympics Olympic champion Giles Scott says he's got one eye on the 2019 Finn world title and the other on Tokyo 2020 as he returns to action next week. Posted on 13 Dec 2019
British Sailing Team named for Olympic Test Event
17 athletes chosen for 'Ready Steady Tokyo' dress rehearsal The 17 athletes that will represent Great Britain at the Tokyo 2020 test event have today been revealed by the RYA. The test event, dubbed Ready Steady Tokyo, is a dress rehearsal for the Games with traditionally only one entry per nation in each class. Posted on 31 May 2019
Cyclops Marine 2023 November - FOOTERHenri-Lloyd Dynamic RangeNorth Sails Loft 57 Podcast