Superb day as 49er duo turn on the style
Written by RYA | 02 August 2012
The British 49er boys turned on the style as two superb race wins propelled them into silver medal position overall, on day five of the Olympic Sailing Regatta today (Thursday 2 August).
Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes were in indomitable form as they firstly led from start to finish on the first race of the day – their seventh race of the event – before producing an equally emphatic display in race two to triumph by nine seconds.
Most importantly the teams in the overnight medal positions – Australia, New Zealand and France – all finished outside the top eight boats in race one, and outside the top five in race two.
These results meant the Exmouth-based Brits moved from being in fifth place overall, three points off the medal spots, to the silver medal position with the Australian leading team in their sights.
Morrison said: “It was as good as it could have been today. We’ve been sailing really well all week and didn’t really do anything different today. Our boat speed was up a notch from yesterday compared to the fleet. We kept our heads in some very big gusts and did a fantastic job. We are always confident in these conditions and managed to do it when it counts.
“It’s a confidence boast but we were confident even after the bad day. We’ve sailed the 49er a long time, we know we’re good in Weymouth and you don’t want to get too excited when you do well or too down when you do badly, it’s very boring unfortunately but it’s the reality of what we need to be like until next Wednesday.”
Tomorrow (Friday) is set to be a big day for the 49er class, with three races scheduled. In total they have seven races remaining with their medal race scheduled for next Wednesday (8 August) at 1pm.
Morrison added: “We are still only halfway through the regatta and the Australians deserve the title of event favourites. They have had a bit of a wobbly day but we know they will be back tomorrow and we know we could have another a wobbly day. We’re going to have wobbles; everyone’s going to have wobbles. It’s kind of the case of trying to hang around a bit like a bad smell and annoy people enough that they make some mistakes. We need to get focused and back in on the game.”
Rhodes added: “It’s all going in the right direction. We couldn’t be happier to be honest, days like today don’t happen very often and it’s pretty nice to be on the right side of it. We feel like we are doing the same thing that we did at the beginning of the regatta but things just seem to be falling into place a little better.”
Racing is scheduled to resume at 1.30pm tomorrow (Friday 3 August) on the spectator Nothe course.
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