SAILING NEWS
News 8
Two golds and four bronzes as Skandia Team
PODIUM PLACES: Shirley Robertson, Annie Lush and
Lucy Macgregor, left, and, above, Christina
Bassadone and Saskia Clark
Medals galore
STEVIE Morrison and Ben Rhodes clinched CASCAIS PICTURES:
gold for Skandia Team GBR at the end of the
Richard Langdon/Skandia Team GBR
ISAF World Sailing Championships in
Cascais, Portugal, bringing the final British
chance to get up onto a podium to collect our
medal haul to two gold and four bronze
medals!”
medals at the close of the event.
Although they were unable to claim a
The Exmouth-based duo dominated from
podium spot heading into the 470 men’s final
day one of the Championships – which are a
race, Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield finished
key part of the selection process for British
on a high, coming second in the medal race
sailors for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
for the men’s double-handed class to see
– and went into Friday’s (13 July), medal
them end their regatta in eighth place.
race with an 11 point lead over their nearest
With two gold and four bronze medals won
Austrian rivals Nico Delle Karth and
at these crucial World Championships,
Nikolaus Leopold.
Skandia Team GBR also clinched the IOC
The Brits got a slow start in the 10-boat
President’s Cup for the overall top nation at
final race, but managed to keep ahead of the
the event. That, coupled with the fact that
Austrian team throughout, crossing the finish
Great Britain has qualified at this event in all
line in fourth place to extend their winning
11 classes for the Beijing 2008 Olympic
lead to 17 points.
Games, has made Olympic Manager Stephen
“It’s amazing – definitely the highlight of
Park a happy man.
our sailing careers so far, and hopefully a
“Winning six medals at the World
vital stepping stone in our campaign for
Championships is fantastic, but what is real-
Beijing next year,” said Morrison. “Ben did
ly pleasing is that we were competing for the
a wicked job today and we’re over the moon!
gold medal in eight of the eleven disci-
“We had the yellow dot on our sail from
plines,” said Park.
day one. I don’t know if anyone’s ever done
“We hope to be able to build this towards
that at a 49er World Championship before,
China next year in our quest to bring home at
but who cares? We have now!”
least three medals for Team GB.”
The 2006 World Champions Chris Draper
Nick Dempsey secured Great Britain’s
and Simon Hiscocks finished the 49er medal
fourth medal at the ISAF World Sailing
race in eighth place, to end the
Championships in Cascais on the Thursday,
Championships ninth overall.
clinching bronze in a gripping final medal
Sailing News columnists Christina
race.
Bassadone and Saskia Clark clinched bronze
The Athens Olympic bronze medalist went
in the 470 women’s event on the Friday, win-
into the final in third place behind Brazilian
ning the medal race by a considerable dis-
Ricardo Santos and Polish sailor Przemyslaw
tance to pull themselves back up from fourth
Miarczynski, and struggled on the first
overnight and onto the podium.
upwind leg once the race finally got under-
“It’s awesome!” Bassadone exclaimed.
way in very light and shifty conditions.
“At the Worlds at San Francisco in 2005
Dempsey rounded the first windward mark
when we won silver there was no podium, so
in seventh place behind his main rivals, and
GOLDEN GREATS: Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes, 49er champions
at least this time we’ve actually had the
struggled to gain ground. “I wasn’t really
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