Amidst light 5-9 knot conditions, the 39th French Olympic Sailing Week got underway on Sunday (22 April) with a promising start for the British sailors on the first day of racing at Hyeres.
Skandia Team GBR tops the leaderboard in the women’s Yngling keelboat event after day one – but early success in the class came from an unexpected quarter, with development squad sailors Victoria Rawlinson, Emma Rawlinson and Sue Monson getting the better of experienced campaigners from home and abroad to get the best possible start from their opening two races.
The Rawlinson sisters – Youth Worlds gold medallists in 2000 – and Monson are competing in just their third major event together, and showed superior speed in their favoured conditions to post two race wins from the 29-boat Yngling fleet.
“We didn’t start all that well today,” admitted Monson “but we worked our way through the fleet to round in the top three to five each time.
“It was our kind of conditions today, so we wanted to nail some races – our preparation has not been great as Emma has been unwell, but we’re confident now about our speed. You can learn from winning as well as losing, so we’ll take all the good points from our performance today and hopefully we can manage to keep the momentum going for the rest of the week.”
The two top British crews in the class - Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson, and Shirley Robertson, Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor – didn’t quite get the regatta start they were looking for, ending the first day in 17th and 22nd place respectively.
Windsurfer Bryony Shaw also got her regatta off to a promising start with a 2,1 from the two races in the RS:X women’s fleet to see her in joint first place with Spanish sailor Blanca Manchon, while Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes – gold medallists at the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma at the beginning of April – posted a race win and a third to give them a solid start after the first day’s racing in the 49er class.
Skandia Team GBR’s Paralympic sailors are in a comfortable position after day one – double World Champions John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas scored a third and a second from their two races to sit in second place behind the Israeli crew of Avi Zur, Prile Gai and Ofer Verfel, while Helena Lucas and Megan Pascoe occupy the fourth and sixth places in the single-handed 2.4mR class.
“I’m pretty pleased with today – I think I showed some pretty good pace and height,” said Lucas. “I was a bit of a comeback kid in the second race – initially I was well down the fleet after getting the first beat totally wrong, but I managed to pick my way back through the fleet.”
Lucas, the IFDS world silver medallist, admitted the racing was a little different than she’s usually used to in the 2.4mR class. “We’re racing with the Yngling and Sonars altogether on the same racecourse – we’re not used to having to worry about such big fleets and having to dodge the other classes as they’re coming downwind at us!”
Ed Wright, defending champion in the Finn class, posted a 4,7 to end the first day in fourth overall, while in the only Laser class race on Sunday, world number one Paul Goodison crossed in first but was deemed to have been over the start line early.
Athens silver medallists Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield were also called over the line in the second race of the day in the 470 men’s fleet, Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark are 16th in the 470 women’s fleet at the end of the first day, while Andrea Brewster occupies the same position on the Laser Radial leaderboard.
In the Tornado class, Leigh McMillan and Will Howden, Chris Rashley and Marcus Lynch, and Rob Wilson and Mark Bulkeley occupy positions 13-15, with a notable second place in the first race for Wilson-Bulkeley and a third in race two for development squad sailors Rashley and Lynch
In the RS:X men’s division, Leo McCallin is in 20th and Nick Dempsey is in 33rd after two races.
Racing at the 2007 French Olympic Sailing Week runs through until Friday 27 April.
