Paralympic crews set sights on the ‘maillot jaune’
Written by RYA | 24 April 2014
Paralympic crews draw closer to podium spots on a testing fourth day in Hyeres
Megan Pascoe and the British Sonar trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas are training their sights on the ISAF Sailing World Cup podium with one day of racing left to go for the Paralympic classes in Hyeres.
After a testing fourth day at the French venue on Thursday (24 April), Pascoe maintained her consistency in the 2.4mR class to post a first and a second from her two races and keep herself firmly in the hunt for gold with two races to run on Friday.
The battle for the podium spots in the one-person Paralympic class is increasingly looking like a three-horse race, with Portland-based Pascoe currently in overall third on equal points with the second-placed French sailor Damien Seguin, and with Germany’s Heiko Kroeger just a point ahead in the standings. Paralympic Champion Helena Lucas is in overall fifth.
Robertson, Stodel and Thomas, meanwhile, will take the ‘maillot jaune’ into their final day of racing in the three-person Sonar class, but face close competition from the local trio of Jourdren, Vicary and Flageul as well as the third and fourth-placed Norwegian and Australian teams with just four points separating the first and fourth-placed boats.
With two days left to run for the Olympic Classes, Thursday’s tricky light wind racing provided a tough test for a number of the international fleet, with several British crews frustrated to find more snakes than ladders on the racetrack.
Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre managed to find the ladders on the 470 Women’s course, picking up a race win to start their two-race day, followed by a seventh – a scoreline mirrored by the New Zealand World and Olympic Champions who maintain their two-point gap over the British crew in the overall standings.
“It was quite a similar day to yesterday – a bit harder and a few more shifts to play,” said McIntyre
“We didn’t get off the startline very well today, so we made our lives quite hard, and we should have done better in the last race, so that was a bit frustrating. “But overall we’re pretty pleased – we had a good day.”
Nick Thompson also made up ground in the Laser fleet, picking up a second and a third to boost his overall position to sixth, while Ben Saxton and Hannah Diamond pulled back to fifth place in the Nacra 17 multihull fleet, with a ninth in their second race of the day helping to offset a 27th from their first.
Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign had a day they’d rather forget in the 49er class, finishing the day in eighth place after starting it in third. Among a number of crews to see up and down scores during the day, Sign admitted they had found it tough going in the tricky three races on Thursday, and were ‘dictated to by the fleet, not able to make our own decisions’, with Fletcher vowing to ‘reflect and regroup ahead of tomorrow’.
Teammates John Pink and Stuart Bithell, however improved to sixth overall in the men’s skiff fleet thanks to a 10,9,2 from their day. Bithell, the 2012 silver medallist in the 470 class, explained:
“It was a tough day. It was the first racing we’ve had in the really light stuff, which has been interesting and mixed up the fleet. It was pretty hard to get consistent but we just about came out of the day with three decent results.
“Certainly today we’ve experienced some tricky conditions – very shifty and light with a difference in pressure. We were talking on the way in that we’ve not really experienced that type of condition yet as a team, so it’s good,” Bithell continued.
“We’re working well as a team at the moment and every day brings a bit more experience as a team. Hopefully we can just keep building.”
Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth remain in touch with the podium spots in spite of a tough day in the 49erFX class. They started strongly with a fifth in the first race of the day, but were unable to match it in the following two races, picking up a 19,9 to end the day in fourth.
Luke Patience and Elliot Willis saw the wrong side of a 20 degree windshift in their first race of two today in the 470 Men’s class, posting a 30th before improving to finish ninth in the second. They end their day in eighth place, as does RS:X windsurfer Nick Dempsey, who admitted to making it ‘harder than it needed to be’ in what were three inconsistent races for the current World Champion.
In the Laser Radial event, Podium Potential sailor Hannah Snellgrove is in 14th place, with Chloe Martin 16th.
Racing at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres continues on Friday 25 April with the final races for the Paralympic classes, and with the ten berths for the Olympic Classes medal races on Saturday 26 April also set to be determined.
We’ll bring you all the British Sailing Team news, results and reaction from the event at
www.britishsailingteam.com, on Twitter @BritishSailing or via our
Facebook page.