Mens 470 at London 2012 - Day 1: Champagne start for Luke & Stu
by RYA 2 Aug 2012 17:49 BST
2 August 2012
Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell got their Olympic career off to a "champagne" start as they surged into an early 470 Men's class lead on their first day of London 2012 regatta action today (Thursday 2 August).
The double World Championship silver medallists wasted no time in signalling their golden intentions to the rest of the fleet as they revelled in the gusts at Weymouth and Portland, picking up a second and first from their opening two races of the event.
In both races Patience and Bithell also beat the Australian favourites, Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page, who ended their first day with a third and ninth.
The pair, who received a personal good luck message from HRH The Princess Royal via the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club ahead of the event, have been buoyant in the build-up to the event, insisting they were genuine gold medal hopes.
Patience admits that although there is a long way to go, things could not have got off to a better start for the pair.
He said: "It's a nice way to start for sure. It's been a few years building up to this point and it feels like it took forever to get here. It's just nice to have day one under our belt. It was just champagne sailing out there!
"Me and Stu just stuck to the things we said we would. We started well and I got my head down and made the boat go 100mph. It's just nice to come away with a day where there are not too many mistakes because they will come, but today we have had a good one."
Stuart said: "There was a little bit of nerves this morning. Luke and I just got into our routines though and that's all we can do. The nerves will take care of themselves. Certainly after two good starts the nerves were gone!"
On the spectator Nothe course, the 470 men had to contend with very gusty, patchy wind leaving the potential for some surprises and opportunities for some big losses and gains. But this didn't faze Patience and Bithell who enjoyed a superb start in race one, blasting up the first upwind leg and rounding mark one in fifth.
Picking the shifts well, it didn't take long for the boys to move into second spot, the place they maintained from mark three to the crossing the finish line. Race two was an exemplary case of how to stamp your authority on a race, with the Brits once again getting a clean start and leading from start to finish to win by half a minute.
Patience added: "We're living the dream! It is great fun, we are so pleased to have this opportunity to race at the Olympics, race against the best in the world and try and be one of the best in the world. What is there not to love? It's fantastic and we are having a great time!"
The 470 Men are scheduled to resume at 12.05pm tomorrow (Friday 3 August) with the boys scheduled to race on the Weymouth Bay West course.
www.rya.org.uk/london2012