Golden hat-trick for British sailors as Delta Lloyd Regatta draws to a close
Written by RYA | 24 May 2014
Golds in 2.4mR, SKUD and 49er headline GBR's seven medal tally in Holland
Megan Pascoe and the SKUD duo of Alexandra and Niki Birrell have added to British 49er fortunes at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in the Netherlands to claim a hat-trick of gold medals for the British Sailing Team at the close of the EUROSAF Champions Cup series event on Saturday (24 May).
Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign had opened the medal tally on Friday evening, claiming gold in the 49er event, with John Pink and Stuart Bithell ensuring a British 1-2 in the class.
But Saturday’s final races in the remaining Olympic and Paralympic classes in Medemblik yielded five more medals for British sailors at the second leg of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup, including a dominant win for Rio 2016 hopeful Megan Pascoe in the 2.4mR event.
Such was Pascoe’s lead that she didn’t need to sail the second of the two scheduled races on Saturday to defend her 2013 Delta Lloyd crown, amassing five race wins from the nine races in the five-day series to extend her podium run to four events this year, of which she has won two.
The Ardingly sailor admitted that her run of form is a welcome confident boost in the build up to Rio 2016, where she hopes to race at her first Paralympic Games.
“It's really, really promising. It's my fourth medal of the year. Retaining my title at Medemblik is really nice. It's an amazing place and I seem to really like it. I always go practising at Frensham Pond before I come here, to get used to the shifts. So I am really excited about this.”
“Medemblik is always tricky, always shifty. You have to understand that anything can happen,” the Portland-based sailor explained of racing on the IJsselmeer.
“I had a bit of luck yesterday, managed to go from fifth to first down the last run which probably shouldn't have gone my way, but it did. Sometimes you just have to hold onto your hats and hope everything is going to come out right.”
It was so nearly a British 1-2 in the 2.4mR event, with Paralympic Champion Helena Lucas poised in second after the penultimate race of the series before a false start penalty in the final race saw her fall out of contention for the podium spots. She ended her event in fifth.
If Pascoe cruised to her victory, then five-time World Champions and Paralympic bronze medallists Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell were made to scrap it out to maintain their winning streak in the SKUD event.
They claimed a hard-fought victory over Italian sparring partners Marco Gualandris and Paolo Bergmaschi, to remain unbeaten in the class since the 2012 Paralympic Games.
But Birrell knows the competition in the SKUD is continuing to build towards Rio, and with August’s IFDS World Championship in Canada providing the first country qualification opportunity for the 2016 Games.
“Megan [Pascoe] smashed the 2.4s, but we had to fight a little bit harder for ours. It's really good to see the European fleet really developing, with the Italians, the Dutch and the Spanish. All the boats are flying round and going a lot quicker than a few years ago,” he explained.
“It's great that we got all 10 races in, though yesterday was a bit long, but it's all good. And it's obviously nice to win in the end. “It was tight going into today. We're building it up, though we made quite a few mistakes this week and with it being so tight we've been able to find out where our weaknesses are, so we'll go back to the coach and work on some of those.”
John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas ensured a medal in each of the three Paralympic classes with silver in the three-person Sonar event, while there were landmark podium finishes for British sailors in the Olympic Classes.
The 2012 Olympic silver medallist Luke Patience claimed his first medal – a silver – with new crew Elliot Willis since they joined forces in the 470 Men’s event in late February, while Podium Potential squad sailors Anna Burnet and Flora Stewart earned their first senior international silverware, winning the final medal race to claim bronze in the 470 Women’s event. British sailors were in medal race action in the Nacra 17 multihull event, with Ben Saxton and Hannah Diamond placing fourth overall, and Pippa Wilson and John Gimson in eighth.
The EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup will wing its way to the Olympic and Paralympic waters of Weymouth and Portland for the third stage of the series – the Sail for Gold Regatta – from 2-6 June.
GBR medallists at the Delta Lloyd Regatta (EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup), Medemblik:
Gold
Dylan Fletcher-Alain Sign, 49er
Megan Pascoe, 2.4mR
Alexandra Rickham-Niki Birrell, SKUD
Silver
John Pink-Stuart Bithell, 49er
Luke Patience-Elliot Willis, 470 Men
John Robertson-Hannah Stodel-Steve Thomas, Sonar
Bronze
Anna Burnet-Flora Stewart, 470 Women
Full results can be found at
www.deltalloydregatta.org
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