Day 5 results from Olympic Sailing at Weymouth - Finn and Star back racing plus the men's 470 join the events out on the water on Thursday. Flat water and in a good breeze on the Nothe inshore course. Much rougher out on the South Bay course where the tide is kicking up a big sea for the Finn and Star crews. Wind strength is around 17-18 knots.
First result in is for the 49er where Team GB Stephen Morrison and Ben Rhodes have won race 7. Second Lauri Lehtinen and Kalle Bask of Finland, third Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez of Spain. And in race 8 Morrison and Rhodes did it again. second were Lauri Lehtinen and Kalle Bask of Finland, third Jonas von Geijer and Niclas Düring of Sweden. This puts GBR in second overall, nine points behind Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Australia.
In the men's 470 in their first race the winner was Matthias Schmid and Florian Reichsteaedter AUT, with Team GB Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell second for a great start to their competition. Third were the Aussie pair Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page.
470 Race 2 and it was once again Patience and Bithell all the way. Second Alvaro Marinho and Miguel Nunes of Portugal, third Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders of New Zealand.
The Aussie 470 World Champions had a nightmare race, over at the start and then 22nd at the first mark, a great recovery but they then had to do turns after obstructing the ITA boat on the final downwind. They finished ninth.
Ben Ainslie has won his first race of the 2012 Games. He took first in race 7 ahead of Pieter-Jan Postma of the Netherlands with Ivan Gaspic of Croatia third. Jonas Hogh-Christensen of Denmark finished eighth after capsizing on the first run when in fourth place. This result closes the gap to just four points to leader Christensen.
In the final Finn race Thursday Ben Ainslie finished third with Hogh-Christensen in fourth after a great final downwind to pass the Dane. Winner was Spain's Rafa Trujillo with Dutchman Pieter-Jan Postma in second. This closes the gap to Hogh-Christensen to three points for Ainslie.
And a win for Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson in the first Star race of the day, second were Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki of Poland with Brazil's Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada third and Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen of Sweden fourth.
In race 2 it was Sweden that got the gun with Percy and Simpson second and Michael Hestbaek and Claus Olesen of Denmark third. This puts the British defending champions 9 points clear of the Brazilian pair Scheidt and Prada, the reigning world champions and gold medal winners in 2004. And in third tied on points are Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen of Sweden, the bronze medalists in Qingdao in 2008.
A sixth for Bryony Shaw in the women's RS:X race 5 which was won by Zofia Noceti-Klepacka of Poland. Second Lee-El Korzits ISR and third Olga Maslivets UKR. Race 6 also won by Klepacka with Marina Alabau of Spain second and Maslivets UKR third. Shaw finished 8th and is 7th overall.
Nick Dempsey 10th in race 5 for the RS:X Thursday. Winner was Dorian Van Rijsselberge NED with second Toni Wilhelm of Germany and third Aichen Wang of China. Great recovery by Dempsey to end the the days racing when he won race 6. Dorian Van Rijsselberge was second and Przemyslaw Miarczynski of Poland third.
Overall leading positions after the racing on Thursday
Finn after 8 races
1st Jonas Hoegh-Christensen DEN 18
2nd Ben Ainslie GBR 21
3rd Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic CRO 34
4th Jonathan Lobert FRA 37
5th Pieter-Jan Postma NED 39
6th Vasilij Zbogar SLO 41
470 Men - After 2 races
1st Luke Patience / Stuart Bithell GBR 3
2nd Matthias Schmid / Florian Reichstadter AUT 5
3rd Anton Dahlberg / Sebastian Ostling SWE 10
4th Paul Snow-Hansen / Jason Saunders NZL 11
5th Mathew Belcher / Malcolm Page AUS 12
6th Sven Coster / Kalle Coster NED 15
49ern - After 8 of 16 races
1st Nathan Outerridge / Iain Jensen AUS 24
2nd Stephen Morrison / Ben Rhodes GBR 35
3rd Peter Burling / Blair Tuke NZL 41
4th Bernardo Freitas / Francisco Andrade POR 49
5th Jonas Von Geijer / Niclas During SWE 49
6th Lauri Lehtinen / Kalle Bask FIN 51
Star - After 8 races
1st Iain Percy / Andrew Simpson GBR 13
2nd Robert Scheidt / Bruno Prada BRA 22
3rd Fredrik Loof / Max Salminen SWE 22
4th Mateusz Kusznierewicz / Dominik Zycki POL 40
5th Eivind Melleby / Petter Morland Pedersen NOR 41
6th Mark Mendelblatt / Brian Fatih USA 45
RS:X Men - after 6 races
1st Dorian van Rijsselberge NED 6
2nd Toni Wilhelm GER 17
3rd Przemyslaw Miarczynski POL 18
4th Nick Dempsey GBR 19
5th Julien Bontemps FRA 30
6th Jon-Paul Tobin NZL 30
RS:X Women - after 6 races
1st Marina Alabau ESP 7
2nd Zofia Noceti-Klepacka POL 12
3rd Lee-El Korzits ISR 15
4th Moana Delle GER 21
5th Tuuli Petäjä FIN 22
6th Olga Maslivets UKR 23
7th Bryony Shaw GBR 31
G New
2 August 2012 12:32