John Robertson, Hannah Stodel, Stephen Thomas at Hyeres Olympic Sailing Week 2008
Photo: Richard Langdon/Skandia Team GBR |
Report for the Alex Cavaglia Regatta (warm-up regatta for Miami OCR)
Hannah Stodel— 26 January 2009
The first regatta after the games is always the scariest, especially if you have been unsuccessful. So to travel half way around the world, one crew member down, whilst you're funding hangs in the balance is even harder, but that's just what we did.
Whilst Steve is at home recovering from an operation on his neck, John and I travelled to the States to get some racing in and start the first of the ISAF World ranking events.
Stepping into the boat for the first time since the games was a tough moment for everyone, but with a sole aim for our first regatta being to just have fun, fears were soon put aside.
Day one of the Alex Cavaglia Memorial regatta started well from us, leading all 3 races of the day in some very tricky conditions. Day two was sadly called off due to a lack of breeze, meaning that there was everything to play for on day three. With 3 points clear, we were leading on the final day, which is a great place to be. Leading out of the blocks for the first race gave us some great confidence and we sailed the same way all day!
All in all we sailed a great regatta winning every race - It's not often you get to say that!
Now we are waiting for the start of the Miami OCR. This really is it, the start of our campaign for 2012- third time lucky!
Three World Cup wins for GBR sailors in Miami
RYA Press Release on 1 February 2009
Nick Thompson, Ed Wright and the Sonar crew helmed by John Robertson made it a golden treble for Skandia Team GBRs sailors at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, which concluded on Saturday (31 January).
The Grade 1 event, which was the second of seven stops in the new ISAF Sailing World Cup series, also saw British sailors pick up podium spots in three further classes - including one in the debut event for the new Olympic Classes women' match racing discipline.
Training partner to the now Olympic Champion Paul Goodison, the 22-year-old Thompson won bronze at the 2007 Laser European Championships, but this Miami win marks a first event victory at senior Grade 1 level. The Lymington sailor had to fend off the two--time Youth Worlds champion from Cyprus, Pavlos Kontides, in Saturday's final medal race to clinch the regatta title. "First I pinned him to the left and then I pinned him on the right," explained Thompson about his tactics on two different upwind legs, which left Kontides settling for silver some 17 points behind his British rival.
For Ed Wright, there was a more nail-biting finish in the Finn class. Trailing Canadian sailor Christopher Cook by just one point heading into the final double points scoring race, Wright fought back from a bad start to secure the gold.
"I got a bad shift off the line," Wright explained. "Cook got away and rounded the top mark ahead of me, but I passed him on the downwind leg."
In the Paralympic Sonar class, John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and stand-in crew Alex Wang-Hansen put in a dominant display, counting all top three finishes from their 12 races to claim victory by nine points over the host's Paul Callahan, Roger Cleworth and Tom Brown.
"After the disappointment of Qingdao, it's good to get back into winning form again,""said Robertson, who missed out on a Paralympic Games medal with Stodel and Stephen Thomas.
Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Ally Martin had a near-faultless display in the round-robin stage of the women's match racing event, winning all but three of their preliminary matches to qualify them for the knockout stages.
John Pink and Rick Peacock notched up a career best finish, clinching a silver medal in the 49er skiff class.
Paralympic sailors Niki Birrell and Alex Rickham also claimed bronze for Skandia Team GBR in the SKUD-18 class to make it a six-medal haul for the British sailors in Miami.
The ISAF Sailing World Cup tour now makes its way to Palma, Majorca, for the Princess Sofia Trophy (4 - 10 April), with the series reaching its climax at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy in September.
Links:
Website: Full Report
Website: OCR Results
