Ed Wright takes Finn Worlds silver
by Lindsey Bell, RYA 31 Aug 2013 22:47 BST
23-31 August 2013
Ed Wright added to the British Sailing Team's World Championship honours this weekend, taking silver at the Finn Gold Cup in Tallinn on Saturday (31 August) and with it his fourth straight Finn Worlds podium finish.
Wright, who won the world title in 2010 and was runner-up to Sir Ben Ainslie at last year's edition in Falmouth, maintained the British track record of success in the heavyweight dinghy class with a gutsy performance amid testing light winds to finish third in today's medal race, which secured him silver by a point over Dutchman Pieter Jan Postma.
The 21-year-old Brazilian Jorge Zarif sailed the regatta of his life to add the senior World Championship title to the Junior World crown (Silver Cup) he won in Italy six weeks ago.
Wright, 35, who also won silver at the European Championship in Germany last month, went in to the final day in the silver medal position, but tied on points with Frenchman Jonathan Lobert and with Postma and Croatia's Milan Vujasinovic within striking distance of the medal spots.
The British sailor admitted the final medal race was a tense affair.
"The medal racing today was pretty stressful and not that enjoyable!" Wright recalled.
"It was all pretty close. I was in a good position and I just had to get down the last run and I got a penalty. It got really, really close and then I pulled away from them again and managed to hold on to silver."
"I'm really happy. It's been a really, really tricky week without much wind, so just keeping focus with all the waiting around has been very important so that you're ready to race when you do go out there.
"My goal here was a top three finish and of course you would always prefer to win, but I'm happy with silver after the week we've had," the Nottingham-born sailor continued.
"Things would have been a lot closer with the Brazilian if I hadn't had my OCS [starting penalty] yesterday, but I did."
Wright felt his performance amid the Estonian light winds is a confidence booster for the conditions that the 2016 venue in Rio is expected to bring in three years' time.
"This week has been really good for me as I'm mainly known for my strengths in the strong winds, and this week has been really light.
"I've lost weight and trimmed down a lot of my equipment for this season to be more competitive in the light winds, which we expect more of in Rio, so it's great that that seems to be paying off and that I'm back showing more of the light wind form that I had when I first came into the class."
There was disappointment though for Andrews Mills, who'd led the regatta for the first four days – two of which saw no racing due to insufficient wind – before three difficult races on Friday saw him fall out of medal contention.
He made the cut for the ten-boat medal race, but picked up a yellow flag penalty for illegal boat kinetics and dropped to tenth in the medal race and finished tenth overall.
A number of established contenders picked up hefty scores during the seven-race series to find themselves down the pecking order, including Mark Andrews, winner of three EUROSAF Champions Cup titles this season, who ended his week in 27th.
For full results and event information, visit www.finngoldcup.org/2013
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