British Sailing Team at ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami - Day 4
by Lindsey Bell, RYA 30 Jan 2015 05:32 GMT
26-31 January 2015
Hammer time as Thompson takes the Laser lead
On a day where many were left scratching their heads over the shifty, Biscayne Bay conditions, the British Sailing Team's Nick Thompson, Giles Scott Bryony Shaw and 470 pairing Luke Patience and Elliot Willis take home the yellow jerseys after day four of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami.
It was a snakes and ladders kind of day on Thursday (28 January) with sizeable place changes in both individual races and the overall standings giving rise to a tense latter half of the week at this second stage of the world tour.
But 2014 World Championship bronze medallist Nick Thompson remains in relaxed mood, with a fifth and a twelfth amid some tough Laser racing today seeing him into pole position and with a ten point lead with two days of the regatta left to run.
"It was a really, really tricky day racing out there today. We had two winds fighting almost which no one could really grasp or get an idea of what was going on," said Thompson.
"It made for some pretty interesting racing and it was never over until you'd crossed the finish line, that's for sure."
"This has certainly been a target event for me and the way things are going is certainly pretty pleasing," the 28-year-old explained.
But while confident, he was eager to maintain a level head with two fleet races and a double-points medal race still to safely negotiate.
"I haven't made many mistakes yet, but tomorrow's another day and it looks like it's going to be light and tricky again. Ten points is nice to be ahead but there's a long way to go!"
"I've always done pretty well at World Championships and big events like that but I've never done so well at the World Cup events, so I've really put a marker down for this one to try and do well here and certainly try and win it," continued Thompson, who won a bronze medal at this regatta one year ago.
"It's very important and going into 2015 as we're getting closer and closer to the Games it's time to really put the hammer down and I'll try to keep doing that here."
Giles Scott pulled away from Australia's Jake Lilley in the heavyweight Finn class today with a 3,1 on the scorecard from his two races, while Bryony Shaw remains in control in the RS:X women's windsurfing event with a 21 point margin over the Netherlands' Lilian de Geus as the British sailor aims to defend her 2014 crown.
Luke Patience and Elliot Willis extend their lead to 15 points at the top of the 470 Men's leaderboard. They used up their discard in the first race of the day when, along with their key rivals, they got caught out in a windshift off the start line.
But the duo hit back in style in race two to take the gun and ensure they're wearing the yellow jerseys for another day.
"Miami's normally associated with flat water and light winds, but so far this week we've had offshore, shifty, windy conditions which historically haven't been a strength of Luke's and mine," explained double World Champion Willis of the week's unusual conditions.
"We'd probably call ourselves a bit more light wind specialists. We've been going really well, the boat's been set up nicely and we've been confident in what we're doing. It's been a good start."
"We've been incredibly consistent which has been very good. We've had one slip up, which is our discard – that means we've got no more room for error and every point counts from now on.
"But we're sailing well, we're confident, we're going quick. We're happy!"
Friday sees the conclusion of racing for the three Paralympic Classes, in which British sailors endured mixed fortunes on Thursday. A great start to the day for Megan Pascoe in the 2.4mR fleet took a downward turn when the defending champion followed her race win up with another – only to find she had been penalised for being over the start line early. She's now in second, a point behind Norway's Bjornar Erikstad, with two races to go on Friday.
The same false start fate befell Helena Lucas, who has now dropped out of the podium spots and is having to count her disqualification after retiring from a race earlier in the week, and also the Sonar crew of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas. They head into their final day in fourth place and looking to push back into the podium spot after their second in today's first race of the day was marred by a second race disqualification. Craig Wood, Steve Palmer and Liam Cattermole are in fifth.
SKUD duo Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell improved on their overnight position with a race win and two seconds seeing them into overall second place.
Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves remain in contention in the Nacra 17 fleet, just two points behind Italian leaders Bissaro-Sicouri with 3,1,10 from their three races today, while Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth enjoyed a great day on the 49erFX course to boost them into overall second place behind New Zealand's Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, who have amassed an impressive 56 point lead with two days of the regatta left to run.
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark hold on to their second place in the 470 Women's class with 7,11 from their two races today, while Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre had a tough day at the office and drop to fifth overall, five points from podium spots, with 16,19 on the board today.
With some big place changes on the 49er race track today, John Pink and Stuart Bithell remain in touch in fourth place and with a tight points battle around them for the medal places, with teammates Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign in sixth just six points from the bronze medal spot.
Nick Dempsey picked up a black flag starting penalty and an 18th place to see him slip to fourth with two days to go, while Alison Young managed a race win and a ninth to improve her overnight standing one place to eighth.
Racing concludes for the Paralympic Classes on Friday 30 January, with the final medal races for the Olympic Classes on Saturday 31 January.
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