49ers at London 2012 - Day 2: Outteridge and Jensen lead despite capsize
by ISAF 31 Jul 2012 18:33 BST
31 July 2012
Despite a capsize in the fourth race Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS) hold the 49er lead after the second day of 49er racing at the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition.
The pair finished second in Race 3 but having held a comfortable lead in Race 4 they capsized 300 metres before the finish. But with such a comfortable margin between them and Erik Storck and Trevor (USA) they were able to recover to finish fourth whilst the Americans took the bullet.
On the capsize Outteridge said, "It just shouldn't have happened, we were cruising downwind, having a chat, having a look at the lay line and saying we should probably go in a second and as we went in I was probably just a bit too much back in the boat and normally you go around the front of the tiller, instead I ran straight into the tiller with my foot and as that happened the boat rounded up a bit. I got thrown out the back and Goobs did a great job, he realised what was happening without even seeing me and started pulling the kite down. He always saves the day.
"We had a massive lead and that's part of what saved us, I almost thought we were going to get it up and still be first at one point, we did a great job of getting the kite down and getting the boat up and going again and almost got third, just had another bad one almost at the finish, it was close."
New Zealand's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke won Race 3 by 15 seconds ahead of the Australians having led from start to finish. And with a seventh in Race 4 they are second overall.
Slipping from first to third is Allan Norregaard and Peter Lang, the Danes finished 14th in Race 3 and sixth in Race 4.
Outteridge and Jensen lead the fleet on 15 points whilst the Kiwis on 24. Just ten points separate places 3-10 with plenty of racing left to come.
49ers resume racing tomorrow at 12:00 local time on the Portland Harbour course.
www.sailing.org/olympics/london2012