Sunday 15 August 2010

Australia went home laden with gold after an astonishing week of racing in Weymouth Bay, the 2012 Olympic venue. A spectacular effort by RPAYC at this Regatta taking home two Gold medals with RPAYC's Nicky Souter and Nina Curtis along with crew member Olivia Price taking the Gold in the Women's Match Racing against World Number 1, Frenchwoman Claire Leroy (3-1) whilst RPAYC's Daniel Fitzgibbon and crew Rachael Cox also took Gold in the Skud-18 class. RPAYC's Katie Spithill, Jess Eastwell and Angela Farrell finished with a 7th in the Women's Match racing after qualifyinf for the quarter finals.

The Aussies picked up gold in four classes; Nicky Souter, Nina Curtis and Olivia Price in the Women’s Match Racing, the Skud-18 was won by RPAYC's Daniel Fitzgibbon and Rachael Cox on Friday, Tom Slingsby took gold in the Laser Men, and Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen made up the top quartet with a win in the 49er class.

Daniel Fitzgibbon and Rachael Cox  (AUS) celebrating their 1st place
in the Skud-18 class - photo by onEdition.jpg

The French team pushed Australia all the way, with three gold medals – Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos winning the 470 Men, Charline Picon took gold home in the RS:X Women, and in the 2.4mR, it was Damien Seguin who did the business for France. The Dutch team then edged the home nation out of the gold medal table with wins in two classes, Marit Bouwmeester in the Laser Radial and Udo Hessels, Marcel van de Veen and Mischa Rossen in the Sonar. While Team Skandia GBR were left with a single gold - Giles Scott in the Finn. The consolation for the most successful Olympic sailing nation of the last three Olympiads was a hatful of the lesser shades, two silver and four bronze medals.

The venue, Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, is the 2012 Olympic venue and it threw everything at the competitors this week – saving the best for last, with a medal race day that was vintage British summer; wind, rain, near calms and even a little sunshine right at the end. The huge entry of 975 sailors from 57 nations, spread across 712 boats in 13 classes, will go home having learned to expect the unexpected in August 2012.

The medal race action kicked off with the Men’s Laser fleet - Australia’s Tom Slingsby had to fend off the challenge of Britain’s 2008 Olympic gold medallist, Paul Goodison. Goodison had an eight point deficit, and the easiest way for Slingsby to win was to ensure that both sailors ended up at the back of the ten-boat medal race fleet. He did it particularly effectively, inflicting a penalty on Goodison that put the Brit to the back and into silver. Canada’s Michael Leigh picked up the bronze, while his compatriot, David Wright had the consolation of winning the medal race.

The Laser Radial Women have been locked in a war of attrition all week, with long days on the water and precious few races to show for it on occasions, as these highly competitive teams struggled to get good starts. No such problems in the ten-boat medal race however, and the Netherland’s Marit Bouwmeester finally clinched the gold medal that she has had at least one hand on all week.

Finland’s Sari Multala completed a remarkable comeback – the 2010 World Champion wasn’t even qualifying for the medal race at the start of Friday’s racing, but she ended up with silver. New Zealand’s Sara Winther took the bronze.

The Women’s Match Racing was sailed concurrently with the early medal races, where the newly crowned French ISAF Sailing World Cup Champions, Claire Leroy, Marie Riou and Elodie Bertrand took on Australia’s Nicky Souter, Nina Curtis and Olivia Price for the gold medal. The Australian’s took the first two races, before Leroy fought back to win the third. But saving three successive match points was too much for Leroy and her team, and they lost the fourth race to concede the gold medal to Souter, Curtis and Price. The Dutch team of Renee Groeneveld, Annemieke Bes and Brechtje van der Werf beat the USA’s Anna Tunicliffe, Molly Vandemer and Debbie Capozzi for bronze.