Finn Gold Cup at Piraeus, Greece Overall

by Royal Yachting Association 28 Jul 2002 20:23 BST

Ainslie crowned 2002 Finn World Champion

Finishing with an eighth place in the final race of the Finn Gold Cup, Piraeus, Greece, was enough to secure the Finn world championship title, with a race to spare, for double Olympic medallist and team GBR sailor Ben Ainslie.

After securing the Gold medal in Sydney in 2000 in the Laser class, Ainslie went off to join the One World America’s Cup Challenge, before returning to British shores at the beginning of the year to embark on his third Olympic Campaign and try his hand at the Finn class dinghy. After sailing in the boat for a little over five months, Ainslie won gold at the European championships earlier this month and has now added the world title to his impressive list of achievements, beating off 92 other sailors for the medal.

A delighted Ainslie commented, “My tactics for today were just to stick with Mateusz and not let him get away. We didn’t sail the best first beat but we both had good speed downwind, he finished seventh and I finished eighth, which was enough to win the championship.”

“I can’t quite believe that I have won this event, it is great. All of the British team has put a lot of effort into these two events [the Europeans and Worlds] and it seems to have paid off in the results. I would never have imagined when I first started sailing the class earlier this year that I would have won both the Europeans and the Worlds. I have learnt a lot from the rest of the team and also from our coaches Dave Howlett and Mark Littlejohn.”

The final race of the championship was sailed in 13-16 knots of breeze, and it was the Spanish sailor Rafael Trujizo Villar who took the race win with team GBR sailor Andrew Simpson finishing in second place overall with Szukiel Waclaw of Poland third.

Ainslie won the regatta by eighteen points and qualifies Great Britain for the 2004 Olympic Games (although he will still have to qualify himself). The silver and bronze medal positions were a mirror image from the 2001 Finn Gold Cup. Mateusz Kusznierewicz of Poland takes home the silver medal, with local sailor Emilios Papathanasiou finishing in the bronze medal position.

Team GBR sailor Chris Brittle successfully defended the junior world championship title finishing six places in front of the next placed junior sailor, Marin Mizura of Croatia. Third junior was Gasper Vincec of Slovenia in 28th position. Brittle finished in twelfth place overall.

Fellow team GBR sailor Andrew Simpson, was the next highest placed British sailor after Ainslie, improving on his fifteenth position from the 2001 Finn Gold Cup to finish in ninth place overall, scoring his best championship result in the last race. Team mate Charlie Cumbley finished in twelfth place overall.

Ainslie now returns to British waters to take a week out of the Finn to compete in Skandia Life Cowes Week, helming the Swan 70 ‘Volvo for Life’, before returning to Athens to take part in the Olympic Test Event from the 16-25 August.

RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park commented, “This can only be described as an awesome performance. Ben is clearly one of the worlds best dinghy sailors, but nobody could have expected that after only five months in the boat he would have mastered the Finn in such a short length of time. This is the first time a British sailor has won the Finn Gold Cup since Chris Law back in 1976.”

Overall Results: (8 races, 1 discard)

Pos	Helm	Sail No	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Pts
1	Ben Ainslie	GBR 3	6	2	5	1	1	2	2	-8	19
2	Kusznierewicz Mateusz	POL 17	5	-91	16	3	2	1	3	7	37
3	Papathanasiou Emilios	GRE 6	1	1	13	-91	3	10	9	5	42
4	Karlo Kuret	CRO 11	7	4	-15	6	7	5	7	11	47
5	Rafael Trujizo Villar	ESP 100	21	6	1	14	-25	3	4	1	50
6	Sebastien Godefroid	BEL 7	3	-19	7	4	18	11	1	6	50
7	Fellmann Michael	GER 79	11	-33	6	2	17	13	6	12	67
8	Guillaume Florent	FRA 73	2	15	3	-28	9	16	17	9	71
9	Andrew Simpson	GBR 6	12	-40	8	7	24	26	5	2	84
10	Rambeau Pascal	FRA 17	25	14	9	15	4	7	16	-37	90
11	Chris Brittle (J)	GBR 541	-32	7	18	17	26	4	13	13	98
12	Charlie Cumbley	GBR 15	9	5	10	29	8	12	-30	27	100
13	Joao Signorini	BRA 10	10	17	4	9	13	18	-91	33	104
14	David Burrows	IRL 8	18	-69	23	19	12	14	14	23	123
15	Michael Maier	CZE 1	-49	3	38	13	39	6	10	16	125
16	Kristian Aderman	SWE 7	19	-35	12	16	6	22	28	25	128
17	Marin Mizura (J)	CRO 25	20	8	28	20	19	23	11	-29	129
18	Stefan de Vries	NED 6	13	18	17	12	14	21	-38	36	131
19	Gregory Skidmore	USA 1176	31	11	27	-91	5	9	23	28	134
20	Nenad Viali	CRO 14	8	-37	33	25	37	19	12	4	138
21	Anthony Nossiter	AUS 221	14	9	41	10	-66	40	8	19	141
22	Soren Holm	DEN 7	17	-91	30	11	27	8	19	34	146
23	Szukiel Waclaw	POL 12	-51	21	11	22	38	48	15	3	158
24	Clifton Webb	NZL 27	-38	10	21	33	30	30	18	31	173
25	Johan Tillander	SWE 736	22	25	-49	44	10	35	33	10	179
26	Sylvain Chtounder	FRA 7	27	22	22	30	-91	34	22	26	183
27	Dave Mellor	GBR 577	46	20	50	5	-56	29	20	18	188
28	Gasper Vincec (J)	SLO 5	-91	24	29	21	11	36	35	35	191
29	Jorge Zarif	BRA 109	34	26	40	31	-54	15	24	21	191
30	Bruno Prada	BRA 1	-60	28	2	39	45	44	21	14	193
31	Jaap Zichlhuis	NED 785	4	12	31	8	23	25	-91	91	194
32	Szukiel Rafal	POL 7	-47	13	19	43	20	32	32	44	203
33	Burger Christoph	SUI 477	37	45	-91	24	15	37	26	22	206
34	Deplanque Mathieu	FRA 11	26	41	14	26	48	20	34	-56	209
35	Morrison Hart	USA 1161	15	16	24	41	31	43	41	-53	211
36	Geoffrey Ewenson	USA 1170	24	36	25	-91	32	28	39	38	222
37	Nilson Anders	SWE 734	28	-71	39	32	29	24	40	30	222
38	Karnoutsos Apostolos	GRE 12	48	27	47	23	22	-91	31	39	237
39	Aaron O'Grady	IRL 10	-54	51	42	38	21	17	27	47	243
40	Youen Jacob	IRL 5	43	39	20	45	-91	53	25	20	245
41	Krutskikh Vladimir	RUS 1	-56	42	51	50	28	31	29	15	246
42	Josh Beaver	AUS 228	23	-60	34	18	60	38	47	42	262
43	Tapio Nirkko (J)	FIN 216	44	23	36	-48	41	47	37	48	276
44	Bryan Boyd	USA 40	39	48	43	49	16	35	51	-73	281
45	Dragoutsis Alexandros	GRE 8	33	29	52	-62	33	33	49	52	281
46	Mike Milner	CAN 4	30	-59	35	37	53	41	45	40	281
47	Adam Cowling	GBR 2	40	38	26	35	34	65	52	-66	290
48	Kapitonov Vladislav	RUS 7	-63	32	45	42	44	45	36	46	290
49	Matt Howard	GBR 550	36	52	48	36	-91	39	60	24	295
50	Michele Marchesini	ITA 15	58	43	32	52	-75	27	53	43	308
51	Akif Muslubas	TUR 7	29	56	46	34	50	42	54	-68	311
52	Michal Hruby	CZE 9	50	55	37	27	49	-62	42	61	321
53	Walter Riosa	ITA 11	35	44	56	40	51	64	-91	41	331
54	Sergey Kotov (J)	UKR 21	53	-80	58	66	46	49	56	17	345
55	Christopher Cook	CAN 41	16	78	44	53	35	-91	91	45	362
56	Edward Greig (J)	GBR 593	-71	47	66	61	57	55	57	32	375
57	Filippo Caporali	ITA 841	57	61	60	46	36	60	-91	55	375
58	Mauricio Bueno	BRA 100	66	49	62	-91	40	52	44	63	381
59	Kessler Paul	GER 126	45	63	68	54	-70	58	43	54	385
60	Aleinikov Vladislav	BLR 8	42	46	55	57	65	59	-91	65	389
61	Willems Sander	NED 80	52	64	-73	55	52	56	48	64	391
62	Anrew Kern	USA 78	69	54	-91	47	62	70	46	49	397
63	Thomas Laursen	DEN 9	-91	31	57	58	59	51	91	51	398
64	Jan-Dietmar Dellas	GER 81	59	66	-69	59	47	50	50	67	398
65	Albert Jurgens	NED 784	62	34	53	51	69	61	-91	69	399
66	Raudaschl Florian	AUT 271	41	50	67	60	-91	46	91	50	405
67	Thomas Finke (J)	GER 121	-73	57	70	65	42	69	55	57	415
68	Miguel Santaursuca Vilas	ESP 292	64	-70	64	64	63	54	59	58	426
69	Papastefanou Pachomios (J)	GRE 11	-77	30	75	56	67	72	65	74	439
70	Tibor Pallay	HUN 61	65	-83	59	63	61	57	63	72	440
71	Zoltowski Piotr (J)	POL 9	67	77	54	-91	55	71	62	60	446
72	Iacopo Tacchino (J)	ITA 890	-91	62	63	67	80	63	61	75	471
73	Boubouras Aggelos (J)	GRE 1	-76	53	74	73	73	67	66	70	476
74	Gunter Hoffmann	GER 150	70	65	77	70	43	77	-91	76	478
75	Korotkevith Ivan (J)	BLR 7	75	81	71	69	-91	68	58	62	484
76	Cees Scheurwater	NED 804	61	68	-91	72	74	66	64	91	496
77	Davourlis Panagiotis	GRE 71	82	76	65	74	68	73	-91	59	497
78	Polczynski Robert	POL 40	55	74	61	68	64	-91	91	91	504
79	Pim de Visser (J)	NED 788	68	67	-82	77	72	79	68	79	510
80	Nanno Schuttrups (J)	NED 787	78	75	76	76	58	75	-91	78	516
81	Peter Sipos	HUN 2	74	58	81	80	77	78	-91	77	525
82	Mitropoulos Kostantinos (J)	GRE 62	79	73	84	75	71	81	69	-91	532
83	Boris Miladinovic	RSA 468	84	-85	78	79	82	74	67	80	549
84	Dean McAullay	AUS 223	72	79	72	71	-91	91	91	91	567
85	Bence Sipos (J)	HUN 30	-91	91	80	78	81	80	91	71	572
86	Pal Gaszton (J)	HUN 6	81	72	85	-91	76	76	91	91	572
87	Detlev Guminski	GER 92	80	84	79	81	79	82	-91	91	576
88	David Guminski (J)	GER 12	83	82	83	82	78	83	-91	91	582
89	Jonas Hoegh-Christensen (J)	DEN 200	-91	91	91	91	91	91	91	91	637
89	Luca Devoti	ITA 1	-91	91	91	91	91	91	91	91	637