Fletcher and Sign claim second European title amid British podium hat-trick
Written by RYA | 07 July 2013
A second Europeans crown for 49er duo, with podium spots for FX duo Peters-Groves and windsurfer Bryony Shaw
Britain’s sailors have added to a memorable weekend of British sport, claiming three European Championships medals at the conclusion of the RS:X Windsurfing, 49er and 49erFX European Championship events on Sunday (7 July).
Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign made it gold for Great Britain and a second European title at the 49er Europeans in Aarhus, Denmark, counting all scores inside the top 10 from their 14 race preliminary series before the three crucial double-points medal races today.
The British duo, who claimed the European crown in 2011, went into the nine-boat race final races as the leading European crew, and were keen to not only retain that but also overhaul the New Zealand Olympic silver medallists Peter Burling and Blair Tuke at the top of the overall leaderboard.
The Championship went to the wire, with Fletcher and Sign equal on points with the Kiwi team going into the last of the day’s three medal races. The British duo got a great start, but were unable to hold off their rivals amid short racing and shifty wind conditions and crossed the line seventh to the Kiwi’s fifth and overall silver.
But it was more than enough to keep them on top of the European tree, with Germany’s Eric Heil and Thomas Ploessel, and France’s Julien d’Ortoli and Noe Delpech finishing 19 points behind the British pair. Fellow Brits Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes finished eighth overall.
“It’s really great to be European Champions again,” said Market Harborough’s Fletcher.
“It’s been a difficult week with some really tricky conditions, and was definitely easy to get rattled if you allowed it. The conditions were really shifty and we had some good days and bad days, but were always reasonably up there so although it was mentally a pretty challenging event I think we handled that side of things pretty well.
“That’s three medals for us now this season, and it was great to bounce back from some disappointment and gear failure in Holland a few weeks back to get on the podium at Sail for Gold last month and again here.
“It’d be great to the keep the momentum going through until the Worlds and win another medal there.”
In the first ever European Championships for the 49erFX class, the new women’s skiff introduced for the Rio 2016 cycle, Frances Peters and Nicola Groves finished with bronze as third European boat after having earned a last-gasp spot into today’s nine-boat final.
The pair won the ‘Petit Final’ round which allows the ninth to 16th placed boats another chance at making the medal races, and made the best of their opportunity. A third, a sixth and a second from their three final races improved their overall position to fifth, and the third European crew.
“It’s been a very hard week, really wacky racing but definitely good for learning,” said Hayling Island’s Peters.
“I’m really not sure about the format though,” she cautioned. “It feels a bit strange as we’ve obviously done well out of it here and so I’m happy in that sense, but I don’t think I would want Olympic medals decided in this way.
“The event has all been good experience for us in the new class, and we’ve learned a lot.”
The British Sailing Team’s Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth also featured in the 49erFX finals, finishing eighth overall. In Brest, France, at the RS:X European Championships, Bryony Shaw managed to win the Brest Open Championships, featuring non-European sailors, but was pipped to the official title in the European Championship calculations by the host’s Charline Picon.
The 30-year-old Shaw did, however, clinch European Championship silver to add to her World Championship medal of the same colour, and in doing so her sixth podium finish of the year.
“I’m really happy to have won the silver medal here and to keep the momentum going,” Shaw said of her regatta performance.
“It was slightly disappointing to miss out to Charline on the last day, but it was really close on points, and she’s been sailing really well all week. We were literally racing hip to hip right down to the last downwind of the last medal race where she just got away.
“We’ve had spot on conditions, which have played to her strengths a little bit, but for me all the stuff we’ve been working on this week has been going really well,” Shaw continued.
“We’ve had a lot of up and down days – some down to the venue with shifty, gusty, offshore conditions, and some down to little mistakes I’ve made, but overall it’s been a really good series.”
World Champion Nick Dempsey missed out on the podium spots, finishing fourth overall and with the European and overall Open Championship title going to Greece’s Byron Kokkalanis
For full results and information visit http://europeanwindsurfingchampionships2013.rsxclass.com/ and http://49er.org/event/2013-europeans/
For more from the British Sailing Team, visit www.britishsailingteam.com or follow us on Twitter @BritishSailing