Young dominates on day two of Palma World Cup
Written by RYA | 02 April 2013
Radial sailor keeps a clean sheet after day two of Palma World Cup racing
Alison Young continued her dominant form at the Princess Sofia World Cup regatta in Palma on Tuesday (2 April), keeping a clean sheet in the Laser Radial fleet after four races.
The 25-year-old comfortably won both of her races on the second day of competition to make it four in a row, and with a new scoring system being trialled at this event, she can boast zero points on her scoresheet after this second day.
The Bewdley sailor is buoyed by her form so far, but with the experimental system also creating more emphasis on the latter half of the week’s racing, Young knows there’s plenty of work still to do.
“It’s been a great start to the regatta so far,” she said. “Another two bullets today so I can’t really ask for much more from the start, but the real racing begins on Thursday.“It is quite nice having ‘nul points’ though – I might try and keep that going a little bit longer!”
“We’ve got a bit of a mixed fleet,” said Young of this week’s line-up in the Laser Radial class. “A lot of the girls from our fleet have jumped into the new classes which have come in, so it’ll be quite an interesting season seeing who’s staying, who the new faces are and what the fleet’s like."
Young was straight back into training soon after the 2012 Olympics, and is driven by the experience of her first Games last summer.
“After the Games when you come fifth and you see the rest of the British guys picking up their medals, you think ‘I want to make sure that’s me next time’. You see all the little areas you can make the gains in, and that’s motivated me to get back on it.
“Definitely this is the start of the campaign for 2016.”
Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre held firm at the top of the 470 women’s standings, picking up two second places from their two races today – a scoreline also matched by today Bryony Shaw in the RS:X women’s windsurfing. She improves to third overall after four races, while Megan Pascoe capped off her first day of racing at this regatta with a race win to add to two second places to sit in second on the leaderboard behind Norway’s Bjornar Erikstad.
After strong winds prevented any action in the two new Olympic classes on Monday, the Nacra 17 mixed multihull and the 49erFX fleets both took to the water today for their taste of Palma World Cup racing.
The Nacra sailors got three races under their belts, with 470 European Champion Ben Saxton and Hannah Diamond ending the first day as the top British crew in fourth overall with 3,9,3 for their opening day.
Pippa Wilson, the Beijing Yngling gold medallist now sailing in the Nacra fleet, today saw her first day of competitive racing since 2009, and was grinning from ear to ear as she came off the water with new teammate John Gimson.
“It was really good fun. And exactly what it’s all about – properly challenging in every way. It was very fast, with some quick decisions learning to race at that speed.
“There are some big mountains to climb but a great first day. I really, really enjoyed it.”
“It’s going to take a while to learn this fleet and how the distances open up and make a bit of a plan,” said the 27-year-old Wilson of racing in this brand new class.
“Everyone at the moment is just kind of ‘aaarrrgh’ – just go for it and see what happens, and no one really knows what to do. So it’ll be good to get a few races under our belt and start to understand the game a little bit more.”
“It’s been great to come here and line up with the foreigners and get a bit of a feel for how our speed is. We felt our speed was pretty good actually, once we could get out our heads out of the boat and race a bit better. So that’s great, and just to see what everyone else is up to so we can move forward from there.”
Sailors in the new 49erFX women’s skiff event also got their regatta underway today after a day confined to shore in the strong breeze on Monday. Conditions continued to prove testing with the majority of the fleet capsizing during the course of the four-race day. Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth were the most consistent of the British Sailing Team crews and are placed seventh overall, while in the men’s 49er fleet, Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes ended their first day on a high with a race win in the fourth of their races on Tuesday atoning for a capsize in the first. The Exmouth Olympians are third overall, with Dave Evans and Ed Powys level on points with their teammates in fourth, and with development squad duo James Peters and Ed Fitzgerald putting in an impressive display to sit in sixth overall.
Giles Scott remains in second overall in the Finn fleet after four races, although teammate Andrew Mills saw the best scores of the British Finn sailors today with two third places seeing him in fourth overall, while Mark Andrews boasted a race win to end his day and now sits in seventh place.
Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield maintain their steady start in their first event together, poised in fifth after four races, while Tom Squires and Nick Thompson are the top-placed British sailors in the RS:X men’s and Laser fleets, in 14th and 18th respectively.
Follow the British Sailing Team’s progress at the Princess Sofia World Cup Regatta (1-6 April) at www.britishsailingteam.com or on Twitter @BritishSailing.