Patience and Glanfield advance as 470 Worlds competition heats up
Written by RYA | 07 August 2013
Patience and Glanfield poised in fourth after first day of finals series at 470 Worlds in La Rochelle
Competition at the 470 World Championships stepped up a gear on Wednesday (7 August), with the first day of final series racing providing a tough challenge in some testing wind conditions off La Rochelle.
Great Britain’s sailors were well placed after the end of the qualifying series on Tuesday, with three men’s boats and three women’s crews making the cut into the gold fleet for the next phase of competition, and a chance of reaching the medal race positions come Saturday.
Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield, who were in sixth place heading into today, got their finals series off to a flying start, leading from start to finish in their opening race to enjoy a stint at the top of the overall leaderboard.
The second race proved more of a challenge, however, with 2012 silver medallist Patience and his double Olympic silver medal-winning crew Glanfield losing a few places after getting caught in a windless hole on the second upwind leg to finish 14th, and end their day in fourth overall.
“It’s disappointing but you need a thick skin in this stuff,” said Glanfield matter-of-factly.
“You need to learn what there is to learn and move on. You can’t dwell on the past.”
“It’s going quite well,” said the 34-year-old of his World Championship challenge so far with Patience.
“We’re in a decent position at this stage. It’s been difficult – the wind has been pretty hard and difficult to read and there have been a lot of place changes. We’ve just got to try and keep improving really – we’ve got to learn from the mistakes we’ve made and see if we can sail a bit better each day.
“This is our first World Championships together so I don’t feel a huge amount of pressure. We’ve got an expectation of where we want to come and we’ve worked hard up until this World Championships.
“We don’t think about the result too much, we just keep concentrating and try to sail better than the day before, learning what we can. But we’re here to try and get the best result we can.”
Glanfield became a father for the fifth time to a new baby girl just six days before heading out tor these World Championships, admitting “it disrupted the preparation a bit, but it was a nice disruption!”
“I think I’m definitely getting better sleep here – I’m missing them, but I’m looking forward to seeing them when this is finished!”
Elsewhere in the men’s fleet, double Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers and two-time World Champion Elliot Willis endured a tough day to keep in the hunt for the medal race positions.
They’re in eighth overall with a 19th and a 12th from their two races, while Podium Potential sailors Mike Wood and Hugh Brayshaw are 30th overall.
In the women’s fleet, 2012 silver medallist Hannah Mills described her and Saskia Clark’s first event back since the Olympic Games as a ‘learning experience’.
“It was our first day of gold fleet racing today and the wind was all over the place,” the 25-year-old Cardiff sailor explained. “It was making everyone at times look a bit stupid! It was a hard day!"
The duo posted two 15th places from their two races today, and are now eighth overall.
“I think we’ve just got to try and be as consistent as possible,” said Mills looking ahead to the remaining two days of finals series racing, which will determine the top eight medal racers for Saturday.
“I think it’s going to be quite a high scoring event, the wind is really tricky to read. So we’ll just try and be as consistent as possible and try not to get caught out too much on the wrong side of the 40 degree shifts!”
Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre are 11th with an 18th and a 14th from their day, while newly-formed Podium Potential pairing Amy Seabright and Anna Carpenter are placed 19th.
Gold fleet racing at the 470 World Championships continues on Thursday with three races planned from 1300 (local time).
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For full results and further event information, visit http://worlds.470.org