Thompson remains positive after Worlds disappointment
Written by RYA | 25 November 2013
Laser star confident he's sailing well in spite of Worlds disappointment
In spite of his 17th-place finish, Nick Thompson insists there are plenty of positives to take away from the Laser World Championship in Oman which concluded this weekend.
The 27-year-old three-times World Championship medallist had trained his sights on a first world title at the Middle Eastern venue, and secured the dream start to his quest with an opening day scorecard of 2,1.
Two disqualifications from subsequent races – one for a premature start and another for a mark rounding infringement –left Thompson in 22nd place and with his back to the wall at the end of the eight-race qualifying series.
But the Exeter-based star fought back in the finals series to remain in touch of the podium spots – before a jury penalty for illegal kinetics in the penultimate race of the regatta finally ended his hopes of a fourth Laser World Championships medal.
“Generally I don’t tend to get many yellow flags and I certainly never get OCSs so I was pretty shocked to receive those, but it’s the nature of the game,” Thompson explained.
“It kind of almost got to the point near the end where there was nothing to lose – after an OCS and a protest disqualification early on, at the end I was just thinking I was really going to try and give it everything just to try and get that top eight or top ten position.“
“Obviously the nature of when you sail a bit like that is that you’re going to have good ones and bad ones, so it was a bit of a disappointing week, and ended with me picking up a second yellow flag disqualification but there are still lots of positives to take away.
“Actually I think I sailed one of the best events I’ve ever sailed in terms of the races where I didn’t have letters on my score. The other races were pretty much all top fives and mainly top threes.
“I was certainly having good battles with Robert [Scheidt] and all the other guys so from that side of things I’m pretty pleased I’m back up to speed and although there are a few things to correct, I don’t think it’s anything major.”
Brazil’s Robert Scheidt picked up his ninth Laser Worlds victory in Oman, after two Olympic cycles campaigning in the Star class, while Olympic silver medallist Pavlos Kontides claimed silver with Germany’s Philipp Buhl completing the podium line-up.
The British Sailing Team’s rising Laser talent Alex Mills Barton - named the team’s joint winner of the annual Podium Potential Sailor of the Year Award along with Finn sailor Peter McCoy – was the second-highest British sailor at the Worlds, placing 28th overall.
Read more from Nick as he reflects on his World Championship efforts in his post-Worlds blog.
For full regatta results, visit http://omanlaserworlds2013.com