British Sailing Team at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères - Day 4
by Lindsey Bell, RYA 25 Apr 2015 21:07 BST
22-26 April 2015
Scott has one hand on Hyeres World Cup crown
Britain's sailors will head into the final day of racing at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres (Sunday 26 April) in medal contention in five classes, with Giles Scott all but guaranteed another victory in the Finn event.
The 470 Olympic silver medallists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark enjoyed a stellar day to set them firmly in the hunt for gold, with Nick Thompson also well placed to challenge for the top step of the podium in the Laser class.
World Champion Scott had to dig deep in his opening race on Saturday (25 April), down among the pack in 23rd place and outside of the podium positions after the first lap. He managed to pull back to an eighth place finish before adding a tenth to his scorecard from his second race of the day.
Amid another testing day across the courses, Scott now heads into the final day with a 19 point lead, meaning he has to just sail a clean race to claim the regatta title – one which he has yet to win in previous editions.
"It was a pretty stressful day for me actually. I just didn't really get the first beats right and ended up being on the back foot which I was pretty frustrated about as I was starting well and just got the first sector of the first beats all wrong," Scott recalled.
"That kind of left it all to do on the last lap. Fortunately I had some good downwind speed so I was able to pull through on the last run and catch up to eighth I think in the first one, which kind of rescued me going in to the last race."
"I think if you'd told me after race one that I'd have a 19 point gap going into the medal race I'd have said you were a liar!" he continued. "But I was able to be pretty consistent from that first race and fortunately it paid off.
"It's a nice place to be going into tomorrow. I've just got to make sure I don't do anything stupid and get round the course without being disqualified. We'll see what the conditions are like tomorrow – I'm looking forward to it."
Ed Wright, heads into the final day in bronze medal position, having lost ground to the in-form double race winner Slovenian Vasilij Zbogar today, but he's resolute about his intentions.
"Going into the medal race in third position with a great chance of getting second is going to be fun tomorrow. It's going to be all on and the only thing I want is silver – so watch out!"
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark won the day in the 470 Women's event to place themselves just two points – one position in the double-points medal race – behind series leaders Fernanda Oliveira-Ana Luisa Barbachan of Brazil going into the finale.
The British Sailing Team duo finished second in their first race on Saturday and took the win in the second to set up a gripping medal race on Sunday, with just six points separating the top four contenders.
"We definitely needed [today] after a really tricky day yesterday," Clark explained. "It was a reasonably steady day, compared to what we've had for the rest of the week, but really tight racing still. In both races we managed to just get round in front of all the pack and build from there to get a first and second."
The West Mersea sailor is looking forward to a hard-fought medal race tomorrow and knows they will face to a tough challenge to their golden ambitions.
"We're two points from the leading Brazilian girls but I think we're pretty tightly bunched behind us as well with probably only two or three points to third or fourth. I guess it's whoever's bravest wins!
"We're that tightly packed with that many boats that we can't really do much to affect them, we just need to go out and do our own race and try to win it."
Four-time World Championship medallist Nick Thompson also posted the best scores of the day on the Laser course to boost him into the overall silver medal position and within touching distance of Croatia's overall leader Tonci Stipanovic who's five points ahead.
The 28-year-old was delighted with his day's efforts, but couldn't quite put a finger on what paid off on a difficult race course.
"I think if I was to do the day again I'd probably do totally different things! It's been one of those weeks, just battling away each place and not really taking too big risks has been my strategy all week.
"At the beginning it wasn't looking too great, and then finally it came together today. I think it's just about keeping battling away for each place at a time."
"I'm sure it's going to be really close all the way tomorrow," said Thompson looking ahead to Sunday's medal race. "I'll go out there and try and win the race and see where it happens."
Gold in the 470 Men's event has already gone to Croatia's Sime Fantela-Igor Marenic, but Luke Patience-Elliot Willis are poised in silver position going into what will be another closely-fought medal race.
The British duo, aiming for their third straight podium finish this year, will have to fend off challenges from Australia's Mat Belcher-Will Ryan in bronze, and fourth-placed Germans Fernando Gerz-Oliver Szymanski if they're to keep hold of their overall second place, while Ben Saxton-Nicola Groves will look to make the jump from overall fourth into the podium spots in their Nacra 17 medal race. They're just three points from the Dutch duo of Renee Groeneveld-Steven Krol.
Three British 49er crews will feature in the 49er medal race – John Pink-Stuart Bithell, Dylan Fletcher-Alain Sign and James Peters-Fynn Sterritt have qualified in fifth, seventh and eighth places respectively, while Alison Young and Bryony Shaw have also made the medal race cut. They're both placed seventh in their Laser Radial and RS:X Women's events.
Saturday saw the conclusion of the two Paralympic events, the 2.4mR and Sonar, with British crews finishing just outside of the medal positions in both.
Helena Lucas fell foul of a protest decision on Friday night which relegated her erstwhile bronze position into fifth place heading into the final day. A fifth and second place from her final two races on Saturday saw her come close to regaining a podium position, but she missed out by just one point to finish fourth. Megan Pascoe finished sixth, and Podium Potential sailor Will Street was eighth.
"I went out and did the best that I could do and moved up the places from overnight so I'm not too disappointed, but obviously it's always nicer to finish on the podium," the Paralympic gold medallist explained.
"It's been a tough week but it's been good because we've learned a lot about the sails we've been using. I need to go away and work on my starting again, but there are lots of positives to take away from the week."
John Robertson was also feeling positive following an overall fourth place in the Sonar event, in which he and teammates Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas finished on a high with a second and a race win to wrap up their World Cup regatta.
The three-time Paralympian explained: "This week for us has been very much process focussed, just looking at what we've worked on for the last three months since Miami, and that seems to be working quite well.
"We made some pretty silly mistakes – me personally – earlier in the week which dropped us down the scores a little bit, but that doesn't matter too much to us right now. We're just working on building towards the Worlds in November and December in Melbourne."
Medal racing from the final day of ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres will be streamed live online from 1055 (local). View the action on the YachtsandYachting.com homepage.
Medal races, Sunday 26 April: (times are for warning signal)
Area North (Live TV course)
1110 – Nacra 17
1200 – RS:X Men
1250 – RS:X Women
1340 – 470 Women
1430 – Laser
1520 – Laser Radial
1610 – 49erFX
Area South
1135 – 49er
1225 – Finn
1315 – 470 Men
For all the latest news from the British Sailing Team, follow us at www.britishsailingteam.com, on Facebook or on Twitter.