Semaine Olympique Française at Hyeres - Day 2

by Sacha Oswald, RYA 27 Apr 2004 08:15 BST

Light winds challenge competitors on day two of Hyeres week

After the second day of racing in light winds at Hyeres Olympic Week, RYA Team GBR climbed into podium positions in three classes.

Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson and team of Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb sailed well in the sea breeze conditions in the first Yngling race of the day to score a fourth place. The second race took place in a dying sea breeze and Robertson, Webb and Ayton managed to keep their heads together to cross the line in eighth place, which was enough to see them maintain the overall lead after two days of racing.

So far in the class, there has been a different race winner in each of the four races, and the British team have managed to establish a four point lead over the Russian team of Anna Basalkina, Vladislava Ukraintcheva and Galina Loukacheva.

Robertson commented, “It has been a tricky day today, especially in the second race. We made a few mistakes but on the whole are pleased with our performance so far.”

The 470 course also experienced light conditions and although the men’s fleet managed two races, the women’s second race was cancelled. After two further races Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield have moved up into second place overall, just three points off Benjamin and Romain Bonnaud of France. It was also a good day for fellow Brits Nic Asher and Elliot Willis who moved up into sixth place overall after scoring a thirteenth and a second.

Rogers commented, “It was a really hard day today and really difficult to try and predict what the wind was doing. We did not sail our best but are really pleased as we came to this regatta with the view of working on our race starts, as we felt this was a weak area in Palma, and so far we have had four good starts.”

A fourth place in the only race of the day for the women’s fleet saw Christina Bassadone and Katherine Hopson move up to eighth place overall, whilst Shelley Hesson and Linda Dickson of New Zealand moved into the overall lead.

The British Paralympic sailors continued to battle it out in the 2.4mR fleet for their ticket to Athens to represent Great Britain at the Paralympic Games. Helena Lucas scored a second and a fourth place to move up into second overall just two points behind Damien Seguin of France. Fellow Brit Allan Smith was also a strong contender on day two and a seventh and a second sees him in third place overall, just two points behind Lucas.

A further two races were sailed in the Laser fleet, who are competing in four qualifying groups, and Team GBR sailor Paul Goodison continued to climb up the score board. Scoring a seventh and a second place, he is currently lying in fifth place overall. Hamish Pepper of New Zealand currently leads the fleet from the present world champion Gustavo Lima of Portugal.

Tomorrow should see the final day of qualifying for the split fleets before they get into their final series, and all the competitors are hoping that tomorrow will also bring a little more wind.

The event concludes on Friday 30 April, with twelve races scheduled for all the fleets, except the 49er and Mistral classes who are scheduled sixteen.

Results after day 2:

Yngling
1, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Ayton/Sarah Webb, GBR (1,3,4,8) 16 pts
2, Anna Basalkina/Vladislava Ukraintcheva/Galina Loukacheva, RUS (4,4,5,7) 20 pts
3, Ruslana Taran/Svitlana Matevusheva/Ganna Kalinina, UKR (8,9,1,4) 22 pts
Other GBR
23, Dominica Lindsey/Annie Lush/Penny Mountford (16,21,17,25) 37 pts

470 Women
1, Shelley Hesson/Linda Dickson, NZL (5,7,3) 15 pts
2, Natalia Via Dufresne/Sandra Azon, ESP (1,6,13) 20 pts
3, Ingrid Pettitjean/Nadege Douroux, FRA (4,8,9) 21 pts
GBR
8, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson (30,2,4) 36 pts

470 Men
1, Benjamin Bonnaud/Romain Bonnaud, FRA (2,1,15,1) 19 pts
2, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield, GBR (4,2,10,6) 22 pts
3, Simon Cooke/Alastair Gair, NZL (12,6,1,11) 30 pts
Other GBR
6, Nic Asher/Elliot Willis (13,6,13,2) 34 pts
29, Graham Vials/Bevis Field (4,BFD,18,8) 68 pts
45, Guy Tipton/Chris Tattersall (23,23,8,26) 80 pts
68, David Edwards/Ben Redwood (25,31,37,31) 124 pts

Europe
1, Siren Sundby, NOR (1,1) 2 pts
2, Blandine Rouille, FRA (5,3) 8 pts
3, Xiaoying Shen, CHN (2,8) 10 pts
GBR
19, Laura Baldwin (10,16) 26 pts
42, Lizzie Vickers (24,17) 41 pts
75, Natalie Lloyd (43,27) 70 pts
82, Andrea Brewster (36,37) 73 pts

Laser
1, Hamish Pepper, NZL (2,1,1) 4 pts
2, Gustavo Lima, POR (1,2,3) 6 pts
3, Andreas Geritzer, AUT (3,1,3) 7 pts
GBR
5, Paul Goodison (1,7,2) 10 pts
27, Dan Holman (3,11,18) 32 pts
30, Andrew Commander (3,13,19) 35 pts
33, Mark Howard (25,3,8) 36 pts
39, Ed Wright (9,12,19) 40 pts
63, Charles Baillie-Strong (7,14,29) 50 pts
66, Andy Brooks (12,16,24) 52 pts
73, Keir Clarke (14,27,14) 55 pts
83, James Gray (21,18,23) 62 pts
100, James Smith (29,34,11) 74 pts
109, Tim Hulse (23,27,27) 77 pts

Finn
1, Vladimir Krutskikh, RUS (1,4) 5 pts
2, Emilios Papathanasiou, ESP (4,2) 6 pts
3, Oleksij Borysov, UKR (7,3) 10 pts
GBR
13, Andrew Simpson (37,1) 38 pts

2.4mR
1, Damien Seguin, FRA (2,3,3) 8 pts
2, Helena Lucas, GBR (4,2,4) 10 pts
3, Allan Smith, GBR (3,7,2) 12 pts
Other GBR
6, Andrew Millband (5,6,9) 20 pts
8, Michael Cogswell (11,1,12) 24 pts
9, Megan Pascoe (8,8,8) 24 pts
12, Brian Harding (9,12,15) 36 pts
14, Simon Wright (12,13,17) 42 pts
19, Andrew Previte (20,16,18) 54 pts
20, Val Millward (15,OCS,DNF) 57 pts

Tornado
1, Mitch Booth/Herbert Dercksen, NED (3,6,1,4) 14 pts
2, John Lovell/Charlie Ogletree, USA (1,8,7,1) 17 pts
3, Roman Hagara/Hans Peter Steinacher, AUT (4,9,5,2) 20 pts
No GBR boats competing

49er
1, Iker Martinez/Iker Fernandez, ESP (8,5,1,1) 15 pts
2, Axel Netterlid/Jonas Lindberg, SWE (2,12,7,4) 25 pts
3, Alberto Padron/Javier De La Plaza, ESP (20,2,4,2) 28 pts
No GBR boats competing

Mistral Men – no racing on day 2
1, Fabrice Hassen, FRA (1,3) 4 pts
2, Samual Launay, FRA (4,2) 6 pts
3, Maxim Oberemko, UKR (6,1) 7 pts
No GBR boats competing

Mistral Women - no racing on day 2
1, Pauline Perrin, FRA (1) 1 pt
2, Amelie Lux, GER (2) 2 pts
3, Charline Picon, FRA (3) 3 pts
No GBR boats competing

Further information about the regatta and full results can be found on the event website hyeres.ffvoile.net.

RYA Team GBR thank their sponsors and suppliers for their support: UK Sport Lottery Funding - Henri-Lloyd - Concept 2 - Hill Hire - Activator – Marlow - McAlpine Business Services