Evans and Powys

Silver success for GBR’s Evans and Powys

Written by RYA | 24 May 2013

49er duo claim first British medal at Delta Lloyd Regatta

Dave Evans and Ed Powys opened up the medal tally for Great Britain at the Delta Lloyd Regatta – the Dutch leg of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup series – claiming a hard-fought silver in the 49er class on Friday evening in Medemblik.

For Cardiff’s Evans and Powys, from Truro, this marks a continuation of the consistent form they’ve shown so far this season, and a third straight podium finish to add to their bronze and silver medals from the Palma and Hyeres World Cup regattas back in April.

It was a packed racing programme for the 49er fleet on Friday, with three finals series races sailed before the three medal rounds scheduled for Friday evening.Scores of 4,5,1 saw Evans and Powys go into the medal races in the bronze medal position.  A fifth place in the first medal dropped them out of the podium spots temporarily, but the duo held their nerve, and sailed two perfect races after that to win them both, and boost themselves into the silver medal spot.

“It’s great for us I think, because the last few regattas have all been different conditions so it’s been nice to be up there again,� said Powys of their back-to-back podium finishes this year.  

“We’ve just been really consistent, which is good, and good to get some more practice at that theatre-style racing in case in stays in, so that’s the most important thing for us.  To come away with two wins from those [today] is great.�  

“There’s a lot of different racing formats going around so we were just making sure we were in the race today,� said Evans of their busy race schedule on Friday. 

“We haven’t been too good at these ‘theatre’ races just yet but I think we’re slowly getting the hang of it now!  We enjoyed it racing today.�  

Fellow British 49er pairing John Pink and Simon Wheeler finished eighth overall, while the women’s 49erFX class also saw its medals decided on Friday evening.  Two British crews – Frances Peters-Sophie Ainsworth and Penny Clark-Mary Rook – made the eight-boat finals, finishing fifth and sixth respectively.  Gold and silver went to Germany, with Denmark taking bronze.

Meanwhile British sailors will be in contention in for the medals in five more classes on the final day of racing tomorrow (Saturday 25 May).

Alison Young regained the lead at the top of the Laser Radial leaderboard following some close racing with 2012 rivals Marit Bouwmeester (NED) and Annalise Murphy (IRL) on Friday.  Young posted a 5,2,1 to claim the yellow jersey for the final day of racing, but will not be able to rely on the nine point cushion she’s built up as it’s positions, and not points, which are carried forward to the single point medal races tomorrow.  

Megan Pascoe and Helena Lucas occupy the top two spots of the 2.4mR Paralympic fleet with two more races scheduled tomorrow, while John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas are in the bronze medal spot heading into their final day in the three-person Sonar Paralympic class.  

A steady day with 3,3,6 for Mark Andrews sees him into the Finn medal race in third place overall and wearing a coloured bib for the first time ever in a major event.

The 27-year-old Scot has had a disrupted early season due to injury, but is pleased with his progress this week.

“There have been a lot of races – 12 races in a series so it’s been quite long event.  It’s good to be consistent really, and that’s kind of what we’ve come here to do. 

“I’ve missed a few events with an injury so it’s good to come back and work on everything that we worked on over the winter and get going ready for the Worlds later on the year.�

If Andrews can pull off a medal win tomorrow that will mean four different British Finn sailors will have been on the podium at the last four events – Giles Scott won the Palma World Cup and came second to Andrew Mills at the Hyeres event, while Ed Wright claimed gold at the first EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup event in Garda earlier this month. 

Mills also made the cut for the six-boat medal race.

Andrews remained level-headed about the possibility of a first podium finish, saying “It’s good to be within a chance, just do the best I can in the race and hopefully come back with a medal.�

He was also quick to praise former Finn sailor and teammate Andrew Simpson, tragically killed in San Francisco on 9 May, and paid tribute to the influence and impact the Olympic gold and silver medallist had had on British fortunes in the his class.  

“The Finns have been strong for quite a while now back since Percy, and Bart and Ben.  It was such from the other week with the tragedy with Bart, so it’s good to try and keep on that strong tradition.   

“We’ve all been sailing with black armbands [this week] in support of Bart after what happened.  He’s been a bit of an idol for me.  He was sailing Finns when I first started – he taught a hell of a lot to us guys so it’s good to keep working away, keep chipping away, and hopefully he’s up there proud of us.�

Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre also continued their consistent run in the 470 women’s class, with 3,2,2 keeping them in second place overall heading into the medal race tomorrow and a chance of a third straight podium finish for their new partnership.

For all the Olympic classes sailors who didn’t make the cut for the six-boat medal races, there will be one further fleet race tomorrow, giving them the chance to improve their overall scores.  

Medal racing schedule for Saturday 25 May:

1000: 2 x fleet races for Sonar and 2.4mR
1100 – RS:X Men
1130 – RS:X Women
1200 – Laser
1230 – Laser Radial
1330 – Finn
1400 – 470 Women
1430 – 470 Men
1500 – Nacra 17

For full results visit www.deltalloydregatta.org  or follow us on Twitter @BritishSailing for race updates

 

 

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