Race Day 4 - Laser Report
Written by RYA | 01 August 2012
Brave Goodison Digs in Deep
Paul Goodison admitted he was looking forward to tomorrow’s rest day after keeping himself in the hunt for a medal on the fourth day of the Olympic Regatta at Weymouth and Portland today (Wednesday 1 August).
The reigning Laser class champion, who yesterday revealed a back injury was hampering his title defence, sits sixth overall after six races, following hard fought fourth and ninth place finishes today.
Goodison had a great start in race one, popping up in the middle of the pack and powering away to take advantage of the clean air, rounding mark one in fifth before chopping and changing positions and finishing fourth. If his back was hurting, Goodison really battled through the pain in race two, when he pulled back from 22 at the first mark to be pushing Simon Grotelueschen (GER) for eighth on the line.
Goodison said: “I can’t feel much at the moment so that’s much better than yesterday. I guess that’s why I’m smiling! It is a much better feeling and I’m just looking forward to tomorrow’s rest day. I wish it [the rest day] could have come two days’ earlier but that’s not the case and today was really about minimising the damage and minimising the losses.
“We still have got a chance at the halfway stage of the regatta so it’s not so bad. There’s still plenty of fighting to be done. You can see by today how tricky it was. I guess it’s just down to the fantastic support that we’ve got, especially the physios who put me back together, got me out there and still feeling good. We had three sessions last night then a couple of sessions this morning and it’s working well”.
The Lasers are scheduled to resume at 12pm on Friday (2 August) on the spectator Nothe course.
Goodison added: “Obviously I feel pretty disappointed with how the regatta’s started but that’s all behind us now. I’ve just got to look forwards and there’s still plenty of racing left. I’m think I’m getting better so hopefully we can get back to full strength and firing on all cylinders for the end.”
The Olympic Sailing Regatta runs from Sunday 29 July – Saturday 11 August. The Laser medal race is scheduled for Monday 6 August (2pm).
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