Bronze Ambition for Stevie and Ben
by RYA 7 Aug 2012 18:44 BST
7 August 2012
Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes are hoping the Australian and New Zealand 49er teams haven’t been celebrating their early Olympic silverware too keenly as they head into their final London 2012 medal race tomorrow (Wednesday 8 August).
The Exmouth Olympians go into the double points medal race showdown on the Nothe spectator course sitting in fifth place overall, six points behind Allan Norregaard and Peter Lang (DEN) in bronze medal position.
This means the Brits know that if they win the race, and the Danish boat finishes at least three boats behind them, they will claim their first Olympic medal.
The Australian duo of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen have already secured the gold medal, while silver is definitely going to the Kiwi pair of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. But with all to play for for bronze the Brits are hoping that the Southern Hemisphere teams are still ready to bring their A game to the party tomorrow.
Morrison said: “We’ve just got to go and try to win the race and hope the Australians and the Kiwis haven’t celebrated too hard over the past couple of days so they can still put in a good performance and hopefully finish just behind us. We only need to win the race with the Aussies second and the Kiwis third and that will be that taken care of so we’re very positive.
“It’s been a very long event and hard work as you would imagine. It’s been a little frustrating for Ben and I, we’ve made some big mistakes. In the 49er you get two or three minute legs so the wind shifts you get on the Nothe course can be fairly terminal if you get on the wrong side of them.
“The Nothe is a flukier race track and we’ve had eight races there. It’s not only shifty but it’s really, really short too. It’s not easy but it’s the same for everyone. We’ve got the opportunity for it to click tomorrow and if it does, we haven’t got to do all that much to win a bronze medal, which would obviously be a real dream.
“We’ve been fighting hard and we’ve still got a lot of belief and feel strong so we’re really looking forward to taking the opportunity that we’ve got.”
The 49er medal race is scheduled to start at 1pm tomorrow.
The Olympic Sailing Regatta runs from Sunday 29 July – Saturday 11 August. Find out more at www.rya.org.uk/london2012