Athens 2004 - Day 8
by Sacha Oswald, RYA 21 Aug 2004 23:36 BST
Medal tally up to three for Team GB sailors
On day eight of the 2004 Olympic Games, the British sailors have come up trumps, and have now won a total of two golds and one silver medal.
Today Ben Ainslie, sailed into the record books when he won his second gold medal, and this medal, added to the silver and gold that he has already won, puts him on a par with Rodney Pattison as Great Britain’s most successful Olympic sailor.
Also winning a silver medal today were 470 sailors Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield. This young pairing finished in fourth place in Sydney and were delighted to win the silver in Athens.
Rogers said, “We are really pleased to have won silver, especially after just missing out in Sydney. However, we are a little disappointed that we couldn’t overtake the American’s especially after leading for the majority of the week.”
These two medals, added to the gold medal that Shirley Robertson, Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb have already won in the Yngling class, makes sailing Great Britain’s most successful sport in Athens so far.
Ainslie left the shore needing to be no more than fifteen places behind his Spanish rival, Rafael Trujillo. Ben Ainslie eventually crossed the line in fourteenth, one place behind the Spaniard.
After being congratulated by his coach, Dave Howlett, Ben took the Union Jack in celebration of winning the second gold medal for the GB sailing team.
Also returning back to a jubilant support team was Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield who sailed an excellent regatta to win silver. In the last race the USA team of Paul Foerster and Kevin Burnham sailed Rogers and Glanfield right to the back of the fleet, a tactic used to keep the American duo on top of the podium.
Still chasing his Olympic dream, Nick Dempsey did everything he could by winning race seven in the Mistral class and followed this result with a solid ninth. This moves Nick from sixth overall to fourth with three races left to sail. On the women’s course Natasha Sturges finished twelfth and eleventh keeping her inside the top ten at ninth overall.
Out on the water for the first time today was Sydney gold medallist, Iain Percy crewed by Steve Mitchell in the Star and Tornado sailors Leigh McMillan and Mark Bulkeley.
Percy and Mitchell made an excellent start by finishing eighth and improved on that by posting a third in the second race. After the first day the pair have made a solid start to their Olympic campaign by lying fourth going into race three of eleven.
On the catamaran course, our Tornado sailors had a difficult time predicting the prevailing wind finishing eighth in their first race and fourteenth in race two. But with other medal contenders also down the fleet and with nine races left, the hunt for a medal is still very much on.
Tomorrow is the final day for the Laser in which Britain’s Paul Goodison is currently fourth but only one point off a medal finish. Also racing is the Europe, Star and Tornado and 49er.
Results after day 8:
470 Men
1, Paul Foerster/Kevin Burnham, USA (1,8,2,15,9,4,3,7,18,4,(22)) 71 pts
2, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield, GBR (2,3,9,4,18,5,2,3,10,19,(23)) 74 pts
3, Kazuto Seki/Kenjiro Todoroki, JPN (3,7,(21),18,7,12,1,9,2,3,11) 90 pts
470 Women
1, Sofia Bekatorou/Aimilia Tsoulfa, GRE (1,2,2,13,1,1,14,1,1,2,(21)) 38 pts
2, Natalia Via-Dufresne/Sandra Azon ESP (2,4,9,15,(19),5,8,3,5,6,5) 62 pts
3, Therese Torgersson/Vendela Zachrisson SWE (9,10,7,2,3,(14),9,6,7,7,3) 63 pts
GBR
7, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson (5,14,15,4,5,6,17,(21),2,16,7) 91 pts
Mistral Women
1, Yin Jian CHN ((11),6,2,6,4,1,1,1) 21 pts
2, Alessandra Sensini ITA ((7),1,6,3,1,2,3,6) 22 pts
2, Faustine Merret FRA (2,(13),1,4,2,4,4,5) 22 pts
GBR
9, Natasha Sturges ((16),10,3,9,9,15,12,11) 68 pts
Mistral Men
1, Gal Fridman, ISR ((8),3,5,5,1,7,5,1) 27 pts
2, Ricardo Santos, BRA (4,6,2,1,5(17),7,2) 27 pts
3, Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, GRE (1,4,4,(14),6,13,2,3) 33 pts
GBR
4, Nick Dempsey (2,11,(15),10,2,9,1,10) 45 pts
Laser
1, Robert Scheidt, BRA (3,8,1,3,8,4,(19),12,7,3) 49 pts
2, Andreas Geritzer, AUT (4,1,(34),7,1,2,12,15,12,4) 58 pts
3, Vasilij Zbogar, SLO ((21),13,3,8,4,1,14,1,14,5) 63 pts
GBR
4, Paul Goodison (13,3,(28),5,11,7,1,9,8,7) 64 pts
Europe
1, Siren Sundby, NOR (1,3,(DSQ),1,19,4,4,1,1,1) 35 pts
2, Lenka Smidova, CZE (10,13,1,13,1,(26),1,6,3,7) 55 pts
3, Signe Livbjerg, DEN (4,6,7,(15),8,6,10,3,11,4) 59 pts
GBR
22, Laura Baldwin (21,14,9,23,20,22,(25),22,23,21) 174 pts
49er
1, Iker Martinez/Xavier Fernandez ESP (3,11,7,5,1,(12),2,6,12) 47 pts
2, Rodion Luka/George Leonchuck UKR (4,(15),3,7,2,10,7,5,9) 47 pts
3, Tim Wadlow/Pete Spaulding USA (7,8,5,(20),9,9,8,3,1) 50 pts
GBR
4, Chris Draper/Simon Hiscocks (8,5,6,3,10,8,1 (13),8,11) 52 pts
Yngling
1, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Ayton/Sarah Webb, GBR (5,4,1,1,4,3,4,6,3,8,(DNC)) 39 pts
2, Ruslana Taran/Ganna Kalinina/Svitlana Matevusheva, UKR (10,3,9,3,7,2,2,9,1,(16),5) 50 pts
3, Dorte O. Jensen/Helle Jespersen/Christina Otzen, DEN (1,14,5,5,5,6,3,4,6,5,(OCS)) 54 pts
Finn
1, Ben Ainslie, GBR (9,(DSQ),1,1,4,1,2,3,2,1,14) 38 pts
2, Rafael Trujillo, ESP (8,3,3,6,2,3,(OCS),4,5,2,13) 51 pts
3, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, POL (3,1,6,4,11,(OCS),17,1,7,4,1) 53 pts
Star
1, Paul Cayard/Phil Trinter, USA (1,6) 7 pts
2, Torben Greal/Marcelo Ferreira, BRA (5,4) 9 pts
3, Flavio Marazzi/Enrico De Maria SUI (10,1) 11 pts
GBR
4, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell (8,3) 11 pts
Tornado
1, Roman Hagara/Hans Peter Steinacher, AUT (1,3) 4 pts
2, Charlie Ogletree/John Lovell, USA (2,2) 4 pts
3, Fernando Echavarri/ Anton Paz, ESP (3,4) 7 pts
GBR
11, Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley (8,14) 22 pts
You can follow the racing online at www.gbrsailing.org.uk where you will get live updates from the dinghy park and the results as they come in, as well as all the gossip from the Team GB camp. You can also leave messages of support for the team and your comments on the racing.
Full results with mark by mark roundings are at sailing.org/olympics2004