British Sailing Team at Ready Steady Tokyo - Day 4
by British Sailing Team 20 Aug 12:56 BST
17-22 August 2019
Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell - Ready Steady Tokyo, day 4 © Jesus Renedo / Sailing Energy / World Sailing
The Headlines:
- Host of British medal opportunities for the first day of medal racing tomorrow (Wednesday 21 August)
- Six out of six British entries confirm their medal race places
- Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey top of the 49erFX fleet for medal race
- John Gimson and Anna Burnet take race win and remain second in the Nacra 17. Ben Saxton and Nikki Boniface also take a race win and sit fifth
- Tom Squires goes in to the RS:X Men's medal race in third with the help of second and fourth place race finishes
- A race win puts Emma Wilson in medal contention in the Women's RS:X
- Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell with a 1,3,3 to move up to third for the 49er medal race
- Giles Scott takes a race win and remains second overall in the Finn
- Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre move in to second in 470 Women's fleet
- Ali Young wins final race of the day in the Laser Radial and moves up to fourth
- Luke Patience and Chris Grube climb to eighth in Men's 470 with a 2,9
- Racing continues tomorrow at 12pm local time / 4am UK
What they said:
Tom Squires (26, Oxford), RS:X Men
"The first race was light and it was my weakest conditions. I had a cracking first beat and thought I was doing well but then got wiped out by someone on port and finished where I would expect to finish in those conditions. The second race I just sent it to the left hand corner. I didn't use my daggerboard and that was a big risk - one of the biggest risks you can take in windsurfing - but it worked out for me and I took a second. The breeze picked up for the final race and I consolidated my position. Now I'm excited for a medal race."
Ben Saxton (29, Cambridge), Nacra 17
"We sailed really nicely today and it was good to win the final race of the day. We had a better start in the last race and that really helped us. The other races we were caught up in the middle a bit and were dictated by the other boats. There's about five of us now to shoot it out to win the regatta in the medal race, so it's all on."
Emma Wilson (20, Christchurch, Dorset), RS:X Women
"It's my goal to try and keep steady throughout. I know things aren't always going to go your way but if you keep chipping away things will hopefully turn out well. I'm excited for the medal race. I'm trying to keep on learning here and it'll be fun."
Charlotte Dobson (33, Rhu, Scotland), 49erFX
"It was a tough day for us so we are a little disappointed. We just struggled to get off the line like we have done in previous days and that meant we got caught up in a lot of traffic. Luckily we hustled a little through the fleet and that has helped us on the scoreboard.
"I'm not sure how we are going to approach the medal race. We haven't been in this scenario too often so we will have to have a little bit of a think about it. I think we will just go in with a view to win the race and adapt from there. That's my gut feel. We will probably ask Giles (Scott) and Hannah (Mills) as they have been in this position a lot."
Racing runs until Thursday August 22. Full results from the test event can be found here.
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