Another day of light wind conditions at the French Olympic Sailing Week (23-28 April) left many of the classes with little action on the penultimate day of racing in Hyeres.
Skandia Team GBR heads into the final medal race day with 11 boats competing across the ten Olympic classes six of them in podium positions. This new Olympic medal race format calls for a single final race featuring the top ten boats, to conclude the race series in each of the classes. The medal race must be counted in the scoreline and scores double points.
With no sailing in the Finn class today, Ed Wright has his first ever international regatta win in the Finn firmly in his sights. With a 19 point margin over nearest rival Misura of Croatia heading into tomorrow s ten boat final race, gold is within tantalisingly close reach of the 28-year-old Wright, providing he plays a safe game tomorrow.
The 49er fleet saw two races through today, with Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes getting to grips with the 4-5 knot winds to post 7,4 enough to push them back up to second overall, and within two points of the Spanish leaders Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez. A good showing in tomorrow s medal race could lead the Exmouth pair to their second ever podium finish at an international regatta, following on from their win in Holland last year.
This is a massive event so it s obviously high on our list and it s all still going pretty well at the moment, Morrison explained. Winning has got to be the key obviously it would be great to win a medal, but the best one s got to be the number one medal!
Before this week I d have said I didn t like Hyeres really. For Ben and I this has tended to be our worst venue for whatever reason, I don t know, but we ve managed to make a bit of a mess of things here before!
Olympic bronze medallists Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks remain in sixth after 12,11 from their two races of the day, while there was a disappointing end to an otherwise strong showing this regatta from Paul Campbell James and Mark Asquith, with a berth in the medal race narrowly eluding them once again. The pair finish 12th overall following a 16,23,13 from their last three races after having been in the top ten for most of the week.
With no sailing in the Yngling class today, Skandia Team GBR still has two boats through to the medal race and in podium positions Sarah Ayton s team are currently in second, while Annie Lush, Lucy Macgregor and their American helm are in third.
A second from the one race in the RS:X men s windsurf fleet was enough to elevate Nick Dempsey into the medal positions, while Bryony Shaw represent Skandia Team GBR in the women s RS:X final race tomorrow.
Neither the 470 men s or women s fleets saw any action today, so from Wednesday s standings, Pippa Wilson-Sheena Craig (5th) and Christina Bassadone-Saskia Clark (7th) will both fly the British flag in what will be a close-fought battle for podium places in the women s event. Nic Asher and Elliot Willis make the cut in eighth place in the men s fleet.
Currently seventh in the Laser Radial standings, Laura Baldwin secured some racing on the final day, but European Champion Paul Goodison missed out in the Laser event a black flag in the first race today putting an end to his prospects a boost into the top ten. No racing at all in the Tornado class today also put paid to British hopes of a presence in the medal race Rob Wilson and Mark Bulkeley just miss the cut in 12th.
Helena Lucas looks certain for a silver medal in the 2.4mR Paralympic class after her third place finish today. There will be one last race tomorrow although not a double-points medal race for the Paralympic classes in which she ll hope to drop in one last bullet over Dutch rival Thierry Schmitter to end the regatta on a high.