Australia’s sailors enjoyed a strong day on the waters of Weymouth and Portland with four crews currently in medal contention after six days of competition.
49er – Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen – 1st overallLaser – Tom Slingsby – 1st overall
Women’s Match Racing – Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty – 1st overall
470 men – Malcolm Page and Mathew Belcher – 2nd overall
470 women – Elise Rechichi & Belinda Stowell – 11th overall
Laser Radial – Krystal Weir – 12th overall
RS:X women – Jessica Crisp – 12th overall
Finn – Brendan Casey – 13th overall
Tom Slingsby has retaken first in the Laser class, opening up a five point lead ahead of overnight leader Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus, while Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen continue to lead the way in the 49ers following a consistent three races on Friday.
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Laser Fleet Photo: onEdition |
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Laser Radial Fleet Photo: OnDesign |
Laser
Tom Slingsby headed into the seventh Laser class race second overall, just a point behind leader Pavlos Kontides. The class began the day on the Nothe spectator course, with Slingsby having a tough race, eventually finishing 15th. The five-time World Champion regrouped and bounced back in race eight on Portland Harbour in style, winning the race and opening up a five point lead over Kontides.
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Tom Slingsby Photo: onEdition |
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Tom Slingsby Photo: onEdition |
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Tom Slingsby Photo: onEdition |
49er
Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen showed real fight in the 49ers on Friday, coming back through the fleet a number of times throughout the day to hold on to their overall lead.
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Outteridge and Jensen Photo: onEdition |
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Photo: onEdition |
While the New Zealanders are close on Outteridge and Jensen’s heels the pair have a 24 point gap on third and 32 points on fourth, with Jensen saying that they will have to push hard in the final four races.
“With four races to go anything can happen,” said Jensen. “If you have a couple of bad races there’s 20 points out there in a fleet like this. Four races doesn’t seem like much but we’ve still got to keep racing as hard as we can and minimise the mistakes all the time. The Kiwis had a great day today and we’ve just got to keep plugging away.”
470 men
Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page bounced back from what they felt was a below-par start to their London 2012 campaign, moving into second overall in the 470 men’s fleet.
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Page and Belcher Photo: onEdition |
“Yesterday it was fantastic to actually get out on the water and find our rhythm,” said Belcher. “Today I think the fleet settled down a lot, there were a lot less incidents than there were yesterday. We’ve got great experience and great speed, it’s not a position we haven’t been in but today it was nice to be fighting out at the front with the British. The lead changed several times in both races, and in typical Aussie fighting spirit we fought hard and tried to get the places when it mattered. It was extremely close in both races and nice to come away at the front of both.”
Page said the experience of their coach Victor Kovalenko helped them come back from what they felt was a slow start to their regatta.
“To be in that position and have someone like Victor, you couldn’t ask for anyone better,” said Page. “He’s the most experienced, the best coach in the world and gives us a lot of confidence when things don’t go your way. Maybe we had high expectations, maybe a little bit too high in the sense that we were fourth yesterday so it wasn’t really a disaster.
“We’re pretty hard on ourselves and we expect a lot,” he said. “We expect a lot from each other, we expect a lot from the team and that’s why we’ve been able to be at the level that we are and it’s nice today to be able to come out and prove that and we’ll go out tomorrow and do the same.”
470 women
Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell began the defence of Rechichi’s Beijing 2008 gold medal with a solid day in the 470 women’s fleet. The pair, who both have claimed Olympic gold, were 14th in their first London 2012 race, coming home strong in race two to finish seventh, leaving them 11th overall.
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Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell Photo: OnEdition |
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Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell Photo: OnEdition |
“It’s taken so long and sort of felt like it was never going to arrive a few days ago,” said Rechichi. “It was good to get the first day out of the way, could have been better, but we’re really happy to have it out of the way. We’re happy with our speed, we’re really fast but just let a couple of boats here and there get away, if we can work on those little things across all conditions we’ll be in good shape.”
Laser Radial
Australian sailor Krystal Weir will be fighting hard in the final two Laser Radial qualification races on Saturday to try and secure herself a spot in the final medal race. Weir was seventh and 12th in the two races on Portland Harbour and now finds herself 18 points away from the all important top 10.
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Krystal Weir Photo: onEdition |
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Krystal Weir Photo: onEdition |
Finn
Brendan Casey finished his London 2012 campaign with his best day of the regatta, with a ninth and a fifth seeing him finish 13thoverall in the Finn fleet.
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Finn Class Photo: OnEdition |
“It’s a great privilege and an honour to compete at the Olympics,” he said. “I had a number of setbacks at the beginning and that sort of rattles you and makes it hard to carry out a regatta strategy as I was on the back foot the whole time which made it really difficult to sail relaxed and comfortable.
“From here on I’m going to enjoy the rest of my Olympic experience, watch my fellow team members in the other classes and see them bring home medals, hopefully gold medals, I’m here to support them now,” said Casey.
On Saturday the Laser and Laser Radial classes will contest their final two fleet races, with the Women’s Match Racing round robin also coming to a close. The 470 men and women will take part in races five and six, with the RS:X women back in action. The 49er fleet will have a day off the water.
Craig Heydon
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