Patience and Glanfield celebrate early Santander victory
Written by RYA | 13 September 2013
470 duo take gold with a day to spare at Santander Test Worlds
Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield wrapped up their maiden competition season in style on Friday (13 September), winning gold with a day to spare at the Santander City Trophy.
The duo, contesting their final event of the 2013 season after joining forces at the beginning of the year, amassed an unassailable 23 point lead on the penultimate day of racing for the double-handed class at this 2014 World Championship test event.
They will race Saturday’s ten-boat medal race in the knowledge that they’ll be on the top step of the podium come the end of the day, which Patience admits is a pleasing prospect to finish off a promising start to their Rio 2016 campaign.
“It’s been a while since I can remember doing a regatta where you win with a day to spare – it’s certainly Joe and I’s first. It’s nice!” the 27-year-old Scotsman commented.
“We’ve had a great year. We came out of the blocks at our first regatta and stood on the podium, and here we are at our final regatta of the year with another gold medal.
“There’s plenty to work on,” said Patience of their impending winter training period.
“The things that we can be working on going into the next season can be many. As ever with these things there’s never enough time – the one enemy you have is the ticking clock.
“We’ll pull into our shell a wee bit, look at the things that we can prioritise on and start digging away at those little bits and hopefully come out next season a little bit stronger and hopefully stand on a few more podiums. Let’s hope that they’re the higher spots!”
The 34-year-old Glanfield took a break from campaigning for the London 2012 cycle in favour of coaching, and is buoyed by their performance across the variety of conditions they’ve faced since his return to competition this year.
“I thought I’d be more off the pace in terms of what’s going on on the racecourse,” the Exmouth sailor admitted.
“Physically it’s been difficult but I’m getting better as we go along and I’m aching less – there’s still definitely some gains there.
“One thing that’s been pleasing for both of us is that across all conditions we’re pretty consistent. We’ve definitely got things we can improve on in every condition, but we’re not a one-trick pony and we are there or thereabouts come rain or shine, wind or no wind.
“That’s really good and we’ve got something solid to build on.”
In the 470 women’s fleet, 2012 silver medallists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark will be chasing Austria’s Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Katarzyna Ogar in pursuit of gold in Saturday’s medal race. They’re poised in second , with British Sailing teammate Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre also in the chase for the podium spots currently in third overall.
Nick Thompson had an impressive day in the Laser fleet’s three races, winning the first race of the day, followed by at fourth and a third to elevate him to the top of the leaderboard, with Podium Potential sailors Martin Evans and Alex Mills Barton in fourth and sixth overall after five races, with Mills Barton winning the second race of the day.
In the Nacra 17 multihull fleet, British Sailing Team crews swept the top three in both of the day’s races, with Lucy Macgregor and Tim Carter and series leaders Ben Saxton and Hannah Diamond taking one win apiece. Macgregor improves to fourth overall, while Rupert White and Nikki Boniface, who picked up a second and a third from their two races, are third.
British Laser Radial sailors picked up two wins from the three races held for the women’s single-handed class. Hannah Snellgrove took the first race of the day and sits seventh overall, with Chloe Martin adding a final race win to elevate her into overall third.
Windsurfers Nick Dempsey and Bryony Shaw are both poised just outside of the podium positions in fourth.
Medal race action commences on Saturday 14 September with the Finn class at 1300, followed by the 470 women’s medal race scheduled for 1345, and the 470 men at 1430.
Medal races for all other classes will be held on Sunday 15 September.
The 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander will form part of the country qualification process for the 2016 Olympic Games.
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