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Latest Olympic Classes News Links Olympic - Ainslie back operation revealed . . . Olympic - Team GBR dominate the Miami World Cup . . . Olympic - Goodison and Dempsey add more Gold for Team GBR in Miami . . . Olympic - Gold for Macgregor, Lush, Macgregor at Miami OCR . . . Olympic - Double Silver for Team GBR at World Cup . . . Olympic - Team GBR going for gold at Miami medal race day . . . Olympic - GBR Olympic 470 crew pull out of Miami OCR . . . Olympic - Team Macgregor battle into semi-final at Miami . . . Olympic - Team GBR weaknesses show at Miami . . . Olympic - Team GBR stack up the points at Miami . . . Olympic - The Pressure of Success . . . Olympic - Gold for Rickham and Birrell at IFDS Worlds . . . Olympic - Team GB start the World Cup road to 2012 Olympic Gold . . . Olympic - Patience and Bithell are 470 choice for Olympics . . . Olympic - The Video - ISAF Sailing World Championship in Perth . . . Olympic - RYA Olympic Manager warns of Team GBR complacency . . . Olympic - Double Silver for Team GBR on final day at ISAF Worlds . . . Olympic - Latest from ISAF Worlds in Perth Saturday . . . Olympic - Silver for MacGregor in women's Matchrace Worlds . . . Olympic - GBR Matchracers into semifinals at Perth Worlds . . . Olympic - Percy and Simpson forced out of Perth Worlds . . . Olympic - Back injury hits Percy and Simpson Star challenge . . . Olympic - Skandia Team GBR rise above the setbacks . . . Olympic - Morrison and Rhodes withdraw from 49er Worlds in Perth . . . Olympic - Ainslie avoids Olympic Games disqualification for now . . . Back to latest Sailing News reports here . . . Ainslie back operation revealed . . . In the Daily Telegraph today, Henry Winter reveals that Ben Ainslie has recently undergone successful back surgery and is now stepping up his rehab at Bisham Abbey as he pursues a fourth Olympic gold. Ainslie now feels physically sharper and ready for the Games thanks to the procedure carried out last month at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol by consultant neurosurgeon Richard Nelson.  Ainslie has lived with the pain for some time, initially it was localised around his lower spine but soon began to seep down the nerve root into his left leg. Ainslie's years of hiking in the Laser and Finn had stressed his back initially it was localised around his lower spine but soon began to seep down the nerve root into his left leg. Nelson advised him that it would affect the intensity of his training programme. The scalpel was called for. It was time to go through the keyhole, to tackle the small sliver of bone compressing the nerve route.Ainslie sailed with the pain at the Perth Worlds before Christmas, but after his return to the UK it was decided to go for an operation in mid January after cortisone injections failed. Ainslie knew that his operation would be a big story with the Olympics looming. He was keen to avoid any scare headlines. “I wanted to get the news out there rather than it leaking out. There was a problem at the World Championship but I was still able to perform really well. By dealing with this now, it will increase my performances.” Now the only thing standing in his way to competing in the 2012 Games at Weymouth is the decision of the Royal Yachting Association disciplinary panel later this month with regard to the incident at the Perth Worlds. Ainslie was disqualified under the International Sailing Federations rule 69, which covers gross misconduct, following a clash with a media crew. The RYA can impose a higher penalty which could rule him out of the Games. Team GBR dominate the Miami World Cup . . . Despite fielding a reduced team, Skandia Team GBR dominated the medals at the US Sailing's Rolex Miami OCR last week. Without competing in three events - Star, 49er and women's RSX - and their top team withdrawing in the men's 470, the British Olympic squad took medals in six of the events, three gold, four silver and a bronze. Although not all is well in the build up, highlighted by the withdraw of Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell from the 470 event after posting a string of poor results. Manager Stephen Park will be pleased with Lucy MacGregor's match race crew and with Paul Goodison getting back into winning mode, even without the presence of Laser world champion Tom Slingsby. The 49er and women's Radial spots have still to be filled, with no one showing a decisive performance, and in the Paralympic 2.4mR class, Helena Lucas and Megan Pascoe continue to swap places in the selection battle. And hanging over everything is the decision over the Ben Ainslie affair. But with such a strong team performance other managers would love to have Parks' problems. - GN Goodison and Dempsey add more Gold for Team GBR in Miami . . . Paul Goodison in the Laser and Nick Dempsey in RSX both added Gold for Team GBR in Miami Saturday. For Goodison finishing second in the Medal race was enough to clinch the gold. Bruno Fontes of Brazil took the Silver and David Wright of Canada the Bronze. Dempsey added a win in the medal race to complete a cleen-sweep and Elliott Carney followed him home to take the silver.  Adding to the mounting medal haul it was a silver for Hannah Mills and Saskie Clark, plus a bronze for Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth in the women's 470. Team GBR finish the 2nd World Cup regatta with an eight medal total: 3 gold, 4 silver and a bronze, from a depleted squad - that should put a smile on manager Steve Parks' face. Britain's Ali Young and Charlotte Dobson finished just outside the podium places in the women's Radial event, 4th & 5th overall. Gold went to Lijia Xu of China with Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands taking silver and Evi Van Acker of Belgium the bronze. In the men's 470, Gold went to Australia's Matt Belcher and Malcolm Page who were one point ahead of Sven and Kalle Coster of the Netherlands, and bronze to Panagoitis Kampouridis and Efstathios Papadopoulos of Greece. Britain's Ben Saxton and Richrd Mason finished ninth. Earlier in the morning, Britain's match racing trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor won the women's match race title. The Skandia Team GBR crew beat Australia’s Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty by 3 races to 1. Sally Barkow of the USA has won the bronze medal with a 2-0 victory in the Petit Finals over Silja Lehtinen of Finland. - GN Other Final day Positions at Rolex Miami OCR Finn - Final leading positions - No GBR competitor 1. Gold USA 4 Railey, Zach 15.00 2. Silver DEN 2 Hogh Christensen, Jonas 33.00 3. Bronze CAN 5 Douglas, Greg 45.00 49er - Final leading positions - No GBR competitor 1 Gold AUT 84 Delle Karth, Nico Luca Marc / Resch, Nikolaus 42.00 2 Silver USA 9 Storck, Erik / Moore, Trevor 59.00 3 Bronze FIN 280 Lehtinen, Laur i/ Bask, Kalle 79.00 Star - Final leading positions - No GBR competitor 1 Gold BRA 8456 Scheidt, Rober / Prada, Bruno 37.00 2 Silver FRA 8237 Rohart, Xavier / Ponsot, Pierre Alexis 48.00 3 Bronze NOR 8317 Melleby, Eivind / Pedersen, Petter Moerland 50.00 RSX Women - Final leading positions - No GBR competitor 1 Gold MEX 5 Vega De Lille, Demita 16.00 2 Silver USA 3 Hall, Farrah 37.00 3 Bronze CAN 5 Vallee, Dominique 40.00 Full story at http://rmocr.ussailing.org/index.php/results/ Gold for Macgregor, Lush, Macgregor at Miami OCR . . . Britain's match racing trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor won the women's match race title at Rolex Miami OCR on Saturday. The Skandia Team GBR crew beat Australia’s Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty by 3 races to 1. Sally Barkow of the USA has won the bronze medal with a 2-0 victory in the Petit Finals over Silja Lehtinen of Finland. 
Double Silver for Team GBR at World Cup . . . Skandia Team GBR’s world title-winning SKUD duo of Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell and the Sonar team of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas ensured they continued their medal-winning ways in 2012. Both taking Silver on the final day of racing for the Paralympic classes in Miami.  Rickham and Birrell missed out on gold at this Rolex Miami OCR by just one point to the Australian duo of Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch. The bronze went to the USA’s Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou who also made the USA’s Paralympic team. Rickham and Birrell were tied on points at the top of the leaderboard with Fitzgibbon and Tesch, a win for the Aussie pair in the final race clinching them the gold.  In the Sonar, Robertson, Stodel and Thomas finished five points behind the Dutch trio of Udo Hessels, Marcel van de Veen and Mischa Rossen. Taking the bronze was Aleksander Wang-Hansen, Marie Solberg and Per Eugen Kristiansen of Norway. “We’re pretty chuffed with this week’s performance,” said Robertson. “We set ourselves goals every day to try and put ourselves under a bit of pressure and I think we achieved the goals every day and just missed out on gold by a few points so it’s been good progress."  Team GBR’s Megan Pascoe narrowly missed out on the bronze finishing fourth, and Helena Lucas improved to finish fifth, keeping alive her battlefor the Paralympic berth. France’s Damien Seguin, finished 3-1 Friday to post 17 points overall and win a gold medal that he can now hang next to his Paralympic Gold from Athens and his Silver from Qingdao. Seguin’s performance increased his lead over Canada’s Silver Medalist Paul Tingley to a staggering 25 points–quite an accomplishment in a fleet of 25 boats. The Netherlands' Barend Kol snatched bronze with a 4-4 today for 48 points, displacing Britain’s Pascoe. Team GBR going for gold at Miami medal race day . . . Saturday is Medal race day at the Rolex Miami OCR – the second leg of the World Cup series. With gold in the men's RS:X windsurfing event almost assured for Nick Dempsey, after a near-flawless week in which he counts only race wins on his scorecard. Skandia Team GBR sailors are also in medal contention in the Laser and women's 470 events. Dempsey, the only sailor here with a perfect score, has amassed an 18-point lead going into the 10-boat double points-scoring finale on Saturday. The only sailor here with a perfect score. Team GBR teammate Elliot Carney and the third and fourth-placed Argentinian and Norwegian sailors are the only ones who can theoretically beat him.  Gold in the Laser class will be a straight duel between Olympic Champion Paul Goodison, and the Brazilian Bruno Fontes who are both tied on points going into the final day and with clear air between them and the third-placed David Wright of Canada. Fontes won both races Friday and added the victories to three others in his ten-race series. Goodison’s 2-3 was good enough to keep him equal on points, so look for a match race situation in the final race. In the 470 women’s event, the Dutch series leaders Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout have a 12 point cushion for the gold. Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark thus have an outside chance of the gold but are most likely to be looking to defend their silver position. They are one of three teams who could win silver Saturday. Development squad sailors Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth have also made the 10-boat medal race cut in sixth overall, while in the 470 men’s event Ben Saxton and Richard Mason go into the final race in ninth. Olympic 470 representatives Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell pulled out of the event early. In the Laser Radial class, the podium spots are out of reach for Britain’s sailors, but Alison Young and Charlotte Dobson will head into the medal race in fourth and fifth respectively. Young had the best day of the fleet on Friday with two third places. Related Articles - GBR Olympic 470 crew pull out of Miami OCR . . . Team GBR weaknesses show at Miami . . . The Pressure of Success . . . Is the pressure beginning to take its toll? GBR Olympic 470 crew pull out of Miami OCR . . . GBR Olympic 470 crew pull out of Miami OCR . . . After Thursday’s racing, Olympic 470 representatives Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell have opted to take no further part in the regatta.  Patience and Bithell, who finished second at the ISAF Worlds in December and were then immediatly selected as Team GB representertives for the 2012 Games, have been struggling to find their form (placing 12, 13, 10, [15] 8, 12, 11, 8) at the Miami world cup regatta and have now withdrawn from the series. The RYA announced that: Instead of persisting with the regatta, the pair have chosen to focus their attentions for the remainder of the week on continuing their campaign planning and preparation with the team specialists towards their medal-winning ambitions at the Games in Weymouth this summer. After Thursday's racing Patience and Bithell were 14th overall in the small 470 fleet, only making it into single figures in two of the eight races they sailed. The other GBR 470 crew at Miami, Ben Saxton and Richard Mason are in tenth overall. - GN Related Article - The Pressure of Success . . . Is the pressure beginning to take its toll? Team Macgregor battle into semi-final at Miami . . . Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor earned a hard-fought berth in the semi-finals of the Women’s Match Racing event at the Miami World Cup on Thursday.  The Skandia Team GBR trio came through their three pivotal remaining round-robin matches to earn their place in the quarter-finals of the Rolex Miami OCR, and a re-match against the American trio to whom they lost 0-4 in the Perth Worlds final last month. They then avenged their World Championship final loss to USA’s Anna Tunnicliffe in the process. The Skandia Team GBR trio came through their three pivotal remaining round-robin matches to earn their place in the quarter-finals of the Rolex Miami OCR, and a re-match against the American trio to whom they lost 0-4 in the Perth Worlds final last month. In spite of some great starts, the British 2012-bound crew found themselves trailing their perennial rivals 0-2 in the best-of-five quarter-final bout, but dug deep to win the next three matches and set up a semi-final meeting with Finland’s Silja Lehtinen on Friday. “We had a lot on today – our group were very tied in the round robin and we won all three of our matches but in fact we had to,” Lush explained. “After winning three matches that made us first overall from our group, but if we’d had lost that final match we’d have not even made it through. Lush was delighted with their impressive quarter-final comeback over the American trio, who have yet to be selected for the 2012 Games and who the Skandia Team GBR crew didn’t manage to get the better of in the knockout stages of regattas during the 2011 season. “We didn’t start out with a brilliant regatta, we haven’t been winning everything straight out and we’ve also made a lot of mistakes but it’s been good to learn from and it’s really nice to get through the quarter-finals,” the 31-year-old continued. “It is always a massive sigh of relief because it’s such a big cut and everyone racing in the quarters is good – Anna Tunnicliffe’s the World Champion and we meet her in the quarters. It’s a really tough stage and a relief to get through it. Full story at http://rmocr.ussailing.org Team GBR weaknesses show at Miami . . . The Miami World Cup regatta reached its halfway stage on Wednesday and despite Team GBR sailors holding seven podium positions, old weaknesses are showing. Many top names are missing in Miami and GBR, with a strong team, could be expected to dominate, but in several events they are failing to show an improvement. The women's Laser Radial and the men's 470 sailors are struggling to make their mark. Charlotte Dobson is fifth and Alison Young seventh in the Laser Radial event, while Ben Saxton-Richard Mason are eighth and Luke Patience-Stuart Bithell 14th in the 470 men’s event. And in the 2.4mR Helena Lucas suffered a setback to her challenge for the Olympic berth with an OCS dropping her back to 11th, seven places behind Megan Pascoe.  Elsewhere things are going more to plan. Nick Dempsey won both his races in the RS:X men’s windsurfing fleet, counting all race wins so far, while Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell retain their lead heading into the final two days of racing for the SKUD Paralympic class, despite their worse result of the week. “Elliot and I had a good couple of races today – kind of like training races for the two of us in a way – and it was great to get the conditions we did today,” Dempsey explained. “It was the first time we’ve got planing since we got here, so it gave the body a bit of a rest from the pumping, and it was nice to be going well in those conditions. Rickham and Birrell, the four-time World Champions, continued their bid for a first Miami title with 2, 3 from their two races, edging them into a two point lead after their nearest rivals, Australia’s Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch, could only manage two fourth places. Elsewhere in the Paralympic classes, John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas improved one place to second overall in the Sonar class, Paul Goodison is just one point off of the lead in the Laser class following another steady day of 1,3 from his two races, while Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, in the 470 women’s event, were overtaken by the Dutch pairing of Westerhof and Berkhout on Wednesday. The Skandia Team GBR duo are in second overall, just one point from the overall lead, with development squad duo Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth in third. The women's match racing is of high quality and Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor have three Group B matches remaining on Thursday in order to book their berth in the quarter-finals. Four quarter-finalists from Group A are known - Sally Barkow USA (11-1), Silja Lehtinen FIN (10-2), Ekaterina Skudina RUS (8-4) and Anna Tunnicliffe USA. The Group B qualifiers will be decided Thursday. “We’ve had a really good couple of weeks training here and the goal is to win a medal,” Macgregor continued. “We’re struggling a little bit at the moment with a couple of things in the boat but nothing that can’t be fixed – it’s just trying to get your head around the racing here. Hopefully we’ll have a good day tomorrow and get into the quarters and be able to start again.” The Rolex Miami OCR – 2011-12 ISAF Sailing World Cup series – runs until Saturday 28 January. Full story at http://rmocr.ussailing.org Team GBR stack up the points at Miami . . . Tuesday's 8-11 knot breeze on Biscayne Bay allowed three of the Rolex Miami OCR’s 10 Olympic classes to catch up on the races they lost due to dying winds Monday afternoon. In another good day for Team GBR, Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, Paul Goodison, and Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell maintained the pressure to all lead their respective fleets. 470 World Championship silver medallists Mills and Clark picked up two out of three race wins to keep them in pole position. In the Laser, Olympic Champion Paul Goodison picked up the perfect score line, with two race wins in the blue fleet, while the four-time World Champions Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell hold on to the lead in the Paralympic SKUD class for the second day, with two second places in Tuesday’s races. RS:X windsurfer Nick Dempsey blotted an otherwise perfect score sheet with a premature start in his first race of the day, but bounced straight back with a race win in the second to ensure he’s the man to beat when the discard comes in after the first race Wednesday. Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor started their women’s match racing campaign on Tuesday, with four wins and two losses to start their Group B opening round-robin stage. Mandy Mulder, Annemiek Bekkering and Merel Witteveen (NED) prevailed with 6 wins and 1 loss. In Group A who also completed 11 flights, the leader was Silja Lehtinen, Siljan Kanerva and Mikaela Wulff (FIN) with 8 wins and 1 loss. The Miami OCR is a chance for Team GBR to get some relatively easy world cup points and early season competition. The event is more important for those still trying to qualify for the 2012 Games and GBR 49er, Star and Finn sailors are missing this event to concentrate on upcoming European events. Britain's choice for the men's 470 event, Luke Patience and Sturat Bithell, are struggling to find their form since getting the nod. Yet to hit single figures, they have been out shone by Ben Saxton and Richard Mason who sit in fourth overall after four races. Charlotte Dobson is making her mark in the women's Laser Radial, in second place behind Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands, and comprehensively out pacing her British rival, Alison Young, for the Olympic berth. Young had a better day with a 4, 8 to mix it with Dobson but still carries a disqualification from day 1. In the 2.4mR Megan Pascoe holds the advantage over GBR team mate, Helena Lucas, in third and sixth respectively. Damian Seguin of France is running away with this event, 16 points ahead of Canadian Paul Tingley. Leading the Finn, Zach Railey of the USA could do nothing wrong as he methodically picked off his competition, most notably Caleb Paine (USA) and Jonas Hogh Christensen (DEN), to quadruple the victories in his score line. In the 49er Erik Storck and Trevor Moore of the USA are still holding on to a solid first place ahead of the Austrian team of Nico Luca Marc Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch. Full story at http://rmocr.ussailing.org/ The Pressure of Success . . . Great things are expected of Team GB at the London Olympic Games. With home ground advantage the British public is looking for a shed full of medals, the more golden the better. And for the British sailing team that expectation is doubled. The British 2008 Olympic sailing team was our most successful ever and the 2012 team is tipped for even greater success on home waters.  Manager Stephen Park has set a goal of four medals this summer, but no one is taking that seriously, with six at the last games we have to be looking at eight this time around with the London factor. Sport England's programme to deliver a London 2012 legacy of increased mass participation in sport has been backed by over £260,000,000 in hand outs to the Olympic sports, and sailing has benefitted to the tune of £23 million to make sure that they continue their winning ways this summer. But is the pressure beginning to take its toll? At the world championships in Perth last December the good ship Team GB sprung a few leaks. In the 49er, an event conspicuous for our not actually managing to win a major title for years, our top crew were forced to withdraw following an injury to crewman Ben Rhodes during the first of their opening day races. And with no outstanding performance so far, selection will most likely be delayed to after the worlds in Croatia this May. In the Star class our reigning Olympic and world champions were also out, with a back injury to helmsmen Iain Percy. And then the 'cause celebre', - the disqualification of three time gold medallist, Ben Ainslie after he blew his top at a marauding media boat and who now faces a possible ban from the 2012 Games. Other Team GB selections are struggling to raise their game. RS:X bronze medallist Nick Dempsey was upstaged by young team-mate Elliott Carney at the Perth worlds, finishing 13th. Paul Goodison, Olympic gold medal winner in the Laser was also beaten by his team-mate. Nick Thompson took silver with Goodison finishing fifth . . . Bryony Shaw finished seventh in the women's RS:X after a disjointed series and will hope to get back at the RS:X world champs in Cadiz in March, targeted as a 'peak' regatta for her.  The ISAF world cup series kicks off in Miami on the 23 January and Park must be hoping that the recent team ski camp has refreshed some jaded bodies and minds. Team GB 49er and Star crews will not compete at Miami but all other team members will be there. Following Miami the first European event is in Palma Mallorca, then Hyeres, France, Medemblik in the Netherlands, the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta at the Olympic venue in Weymouth and Kieler Woche, Germany in late June. Plus there are a number of European and World championship events before the Games in July/August The problem for Park and the specialist coaches is making sure that the team, who have been on a continuous circuit of events to get selection, do not peak too early and burn-out, but maintain a competitive edge and high fitness level. And that injured team members return to fitness in time to get in sufficiant competitive sailing. 470 helm Heather Mills has commented in her blog about getting the right balance in peaking for only a couple of events. Returning to the UK at the end of December after Perth exhausted (despite a break in Bali) and taking part in a team cross country ski camp in St Moritz, Mills and crew Saskie Clark flew straight out to Miami for the world cup event . . . And the pressure to win was back. - GN Team GB for 2012 Olympic Games : Finn: Ben Ainslie Star: Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson Laser: Paul Goodison Women's 470: Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark Men's 470: Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell Women's Match Racing, Elliott 6m: Lucy Macgregor, Kate Macgregor and Annie Lush Women's RS X : Bryony Shaw Men's RS X : Nick Dempsey 49er: To be decided Laser Radial: To be decided Gold for Rickham and Birrell at IFDS Worlds . . . Gold for Britain's Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell in the SKUD 18 at the IFDS Worlds and Bronze for the Sonar team of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas. The British team of Rickham and Birrell maintained their first place position with a fourth on the final day to confirm gold. The Americans, Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou took the silver and the Australian team of Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch the bronze. In the Sonar keelboat event, the Norwegian team of Alexander Wang-Hanse, Marie Solberg and Per Eugen Kristiansen took gold, Bruno Jourdren, Eric Flageul and Nicolas Vimont-Vicary of France the silver and Britain’s John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas the bronze. Helena Lucas finished fourth overall in the 2.4mR event which was won by Damien Seguin of France with Thierry Schmitter of the Netherlands second and Paul Tingley of Canada third. Skud - IFDS Worlds - Final leading positions after 11 races 1 GBR 57 Rickham, Alexandra / Birrell, Niki 2 1 2 1 3 3 1 4 2 [8] 4 23.0pts 2 USA 51 French, Jennifer / Creignou, Jean-Paul 1 2 1 4 5 4 [6] 1 3 3 1 25.0 3 AUS 47 Fitzgibbon, Daniel / Tesch, Liesl [9/DSQ] 3 3 2 4 1 2 5 1 2 2 25.0 Sonar - IFDS Worlds - Final leading positions after 10 races 1 NOR 1 Wang-Hansen, Aleksander / Solberg, Marie / Kristiansen, Per Eugen 4 4 2 6 [9] 1 1 1 3 6 28.0pts 2 FRA 840 Jourdren, Bruno / Flageul, Eric / Vimont-Vicary, Nicolas 3 7 1 7 6 3 [11] 2 7 4 40.0 3 GBR 831 Robertson, John / Stodel, Hannah / Thomas, Steve 6 2 4 2 5 2 8 7 5 [10] 41.0 2.4mR - IFDS Worlds - Final leading positions after 11 races 1 FRA 13 Seguin, Damien [23/OCS] 2 4 3 1 3 3 3 2 2 1 24.0pts 2 NED 12 Schmitter, Thierry 4 9 2 1 3 [11] 1 5 4 3 9 41.0 3 CAN 99 Tingley, Paul 1 1 5 [13] 7 1 6 8 3 9 7 48.0 4 GBR 100 Lucas, Helena 3 8 9 11 2 [13] 4 2 1 10 2 52.0 Team GB start the World Cup road to 2012 Olympic Gold . . . The Rolex Miami OCR starts on the 22 January at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club in Miami, USA. This event is the first leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in 2012. Six World Cup regattas will take place before the 2012 Olympic Games in Weymouth. Following the USA event, five European regattas complete the cirucit, they are: the Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia MAPFRE, Palma, Spain - Semaine Olympique Francaise, Hyeres, France - the Delta Lloyd Regatta, Medemblik, The Netherlands - Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, Weymouth, Great Britain, and Kieler Woche, Germany in late June. Despite the six medals – twice as many as any other nation – at the ISAF World Championships in Australia, RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park has warned that Team GB cannot get complacent and has set a goal of four medals this summer. With Olympic selection still to be made, Britain's Helena Lucas and Megan Pascoe will both be competing in the 2.4mR event in Miami. And three British sailors, Charlotte Dobson, Chloe Martin and Alison Young continue the battle for Olympic selection in the Women's Laser Radial event.  Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell, recently announced as Team GB choice for the Olympic event, are entered in the Men's 470, as are Ben Saxton and Richard Mason. Another Olympic Team GB pair, Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark are entered for the women's 470 event together with Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth. Team GB choice Paul Goodison is entered in the Laser event. In the RS:X events, Nick Dempsey and Elliott Carney start in the men's event and but Bryony Shaw is not entered in the women's event. Also missing this leg of the ISAF World Circuit are Britain's Finn and Star sailors. Ben Ainslie is selected for the Olympic Finn event, but awaits the RYA decision on the incident at the recent Finn Worlds where he was disqualified from two races following an incident with a media boat. Iain Percy, helm of the British Star is recovering from a back injury. Other Team GB competitors at the Rolex Miami event are Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell in the SKUD 18 class and John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas in the Sonar. Also Team GB matchracers Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor will take part in the women's Match Racing event. - GN Latest - Ben Saxton and Richard Mason finished ninth at the 470 North American Championship pre-event for the Miami world series. Winners were the Dutch pair, Sven and Kalle Coster. Patience and Bithell are 470 choice for Olympics . . . Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell have been named as Britain's men's 470 team for the 2012 Olympic sailing. The pair clinched silver at the recent World Championships in Perth to secure their spots. The duo of Patience and Bithell have been competing together since 2009 and, in their relatively brief time together, have enjoyed a steady rise in the International Sailing Federation world rankings. They finished the 2010 season ranked fourth in the world and clinched their place on Team GB by winning the silver medal at the 2011 ISAF World Championships last month in Perth, Australia. Eleven sailors in seven of the 10 Olympic sailing classes were named in September - the first confirmed competitors in Team GB's 550-strong squad for the Games - but contenders in the final two classes, the 49er and the Radial could have to wait until after the world cup event in Mallorca at the end of March. The sailing team is expected to be a major medal winner for Britain, together with the cycling and rowing teams. The projection is for seven sailing medals at the Games. Team GB for 2012 Olympic Games Finn: Ben Ainslie Star: Iain Percy & Andrew Simpson Laser: Paul Goodison Women's 470: Hannah Mills & Saskia Clark Men's 470: Luke Patience & Stuart Bithell Women's Match Racing, Elliott 6m: Lucy Macgregor, Kate Macgregor & Annie Lush Women's RS X : Bryony Shaw Men's RS X : Nick Dempsey 49er: To be decided Laser Radial: To be decided The Video - ISAF Sailing World Championship in Perth . . . This short video summary have been published covering the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championship in Perth, Western Australia, which finished last weekend. Not only the Champions' titles were at stake, but also the allotment of 75% of the Olympic berths for the Weymouth 2012 Olympics. For the long version click the link below . . . Full story at http://www.sailing.org/matchdaytv/index/index/id/10318 RYA Olympic Manager warns of Team GBR complacency . . . Skandia Team GBR had a mixed perfomance at the ISAF Worlds in Perth, finishing with a top number of podium places of six medals, one gold, four silver and one bronze. With injuries effecting two of their top crews, Iain Percy in the Star and Ben Rhodes in the 49er, and the incident involving Ben Ainslie putting him out of the Finn medal race, it was still a good performance.  RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park was positive about his team’s overall performance in the context of their 2012 preparations. “It’s been a long and testing Championship both on and off the water for sailors, coaches and support staff alike,” Park remarked. “While we congratulate the Australian team for winning three golds and with it the IOC President’s Cup, I’m very pleased that as a team, GBR are clearly still on track for 2012 winning six medals – twice as many as any other nation – despite three of our top 2008 Olympic teams being unable to complete the regatta, which I’m confident would have delivered at least one and possibly two more medals.” Park continued: “With the aim of trying to be medal competitive in all ten Olympic events in 2012, with every event we get closer to achieving that aim which we hope will deliver our goal of four medals next summer. We would like to have converted in the 49er where we were leading going into the penultimate day and our top windsurfers Bryony Shaw and Nick Dempsey have underperformed here. “In summary, we’ve had some great performances here in Perth, with a timely reminder you can never get complacent.” Double Silver for Team GBR on final day at ISAF Worlds . . . Britain's Nick Thompson finished second in the medal race to take Silver at the Laser Worlds in Perth. Tom Slingsby of Australia is the new Laser World Champion. Murdoch of New Zealand took the Bronze. Goodison was 5th overall.  It was also Silver for Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark in the women's 470 after they won the medal race. The gold went to Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos of Spain, with Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie of New Zealand taking the bronze. Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes finished seventh overall. Team GBR finished the ISAF Worlds with one gold, four silver and one bronze.  Finishing third in the 49er medal race was enough for Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Australia to secure the gold medal. Silver went to Peter Burling and Blair Tuke of New Zealand and the bronze to the Danish crew of Emil and Simon Toft Nielsen. Britain's John Pink and Rick Peacock finished fourth overall, Dave Evans and Ed Powys were sixth. In the men's RS:X 2011 World Championship, Dorian van Rijsselberghe of the Netherlands took Gold, Piotr Myszka of Poland the silver and Nimrod Mashich of Israel the bronze. No Team GBR crew made the medal race, Nick Dempsey was 13th and Elliot Carney 14th overall. Latest from ISAF Worlds in Perth Saturday . . . Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) are 2011 Star World Champions - Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Australia take the lead in the 49er after Saturdays racing, John Pink and Rick Peacock are in third overall and will fight for silver or bronze in Medal race on Sunday. Star - Final Leading positions - 2011 World Championship Gold - BRA SCHEIDT Robert / PRADA Bruno 45pts Silver - GER STANJEK Robert / KLEEN Frithjof 61 Bronze - USA MENDELBLATT Mark / FATIH Brian 73 4 POL KUSZNIEREWICZ Mateusz / ZYCKI Dominik 76 5 SWE LOOF Fredrik / SALMINEN Max 76 6 NOR MELLEBY Eivind / MORLAND PEDERSEN Petter 81 7 FRA ROHART Xavier / PONSOT Pierre Alexis 99 8 GER POLGAR Johannes / KOY Markus 107 9 FRA FLORENT Guillaume / RAMBEAU Pascal 110 10 CAN CLARKE Richard / BJORN Tyler 115 Silver for MacGregor in women's Matchrace Worlds . . . Silver for MacGregor in women's Matchrace Worlds . . . Gold went to Tunnicliffe, Capozzi, and Vandemoer of USA - Leroy of France beat Skudina of Russia to take the Bronze.  Anna Tunnicliffe, Deborah Capozzi and Molly Vandemoer of the USA are the new women's Match Racing World Champions. The Skandia Team GBR trio put up a determined fight, even when faced with 0-3 deficit but the tough USA team edged the win in each match to be crowned 2011 World Champions. “I think we have pretty mixed emotions right now,” said 25-year-old helm Lucy, whose team had to come through an epic 43 matches over 14 days in Fremantle – the most of any crew – to claim their Championship silver. “We’ve had quite a lot of different conditions and we’re really pleased with how we’ve been sailing. I think everyone saw our speed out there was good, we’re sailing the boat well and there are just a couple of mistakes to iron out before next year but we’ve got a few months. Just a little bit more and we’ll take her!” GBR Matchracers into semifinals at Perth Worlds . . . British sailing trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor reached the semi-finals of the women’s match racing event at the Perth 2011 World Championships on Wednesday. The defending world titleholders defeated the Dutch trio of Mandy Mulder, Merel Witteveen and Annemiek Bekkering 3-1 in the quarter-final to earn their place in the final four.  The Skandia Team GBR crew battled through to Wednesday’s quarter-finals the hard way. Having fallen the wrong side of a three-way tie-breaker in their round-robin preliminary group, they then had to race an additional 15 matches, winning 13 of them, to just make it into the knockout quarter-finals. After a long delay, waiting for wind to arrive inside Fremantle’s Inner Harbour course, event officials eventually opted to race the Elliot 6m boats outside of the harbour where the conditions were better. Once under starters’ orders, Macgregor, Lush and Macgregor were quick on the offensive, winning the first two matches of the first-to-three series. They conceded the third but then wrapped up the tie 3-1 to secure their place in the final four. The Skandia Team GBR trio will face the French team, skippered by Claire Leroy, in Thursday’s semi-final and are in confident form in spite of their intensive schedule. “We’ve done a LOT of racing over the past ten days! I think we’ve done 35 matches, something like that, but we are in the groove and it feels really good to get that amount of racing in and obviously quite a lot of wins, so we’re feeling good about tomorrow,” Lush said. “We know Claire well, what she’s good and bad at, and we’ve no idea which conditions we’ll have, whether we’ll be inside or outside the port, whether have waves or it’ll be flat – we’ll just have to wait and see.” Percy and Simpson forced out of Perth Worlds . . . Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson have been forced to retire from the Star Worlds at Perth following Percy’s back injury sustained on Tuesday. The Star class defending World Champions and Olympic gold medallists were leading the overall standings when injury struck during Tuesday’s first race. “We’re really disappointed to have to pull out,” said the 35-year-old Percy, who has already been selected to compete the London 2012 Games with Simpson. We were having a great regatta, were sailing well and were really enjoying the racing. We haven’t done a lot of racing recently so it was great to be racing together with Bart again, and to be racing as well as we were." “It’s certainly frustrating, but it’s more important for me to concentrate on getting fixed and fit again so that this doesn’t happen when it really matters at the Games next summer.” Back injury hits Percy and Simpson Star challenge . . . Following the retirement of 49er sailors Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes on Monday following an injury to Rhodes, Iain Percy suffered a back problem in Tuesday's racing and he and Andrew Simpson were forced to pull out of the first race of the day for the Star fleet. Olympic and defending world champions, Percy and Simpson were the overnight leaders with a 12 point margin heading into the day, and were third in the race when injury hit.  “Iain was in tears, crying, and really in a bad way,” said Simpson of his Skandia Team GBR teammate and best friend. “I haven’t actually ever seen him that bad before. It’s not very nice when you see a grown man cry and he was in absolute agony. We tried to make the plan to try and literally just get around the course and we had a good lead on fourth place – the three boats at the front were making a nice separation. “Then somehow, with Iain basically in a paralysed way down the run, we got a yellow flag which was our second one of the regatta,” Simpson continued. “It was very surprising, very frustrating and obviously we had to pull out of the race. There was nothing more we could do and Iain couldn’t sail the next race.” With the Star class scheduled to have a layday on Wednesday Percy will undergo physio treatment and the team will decide over the next 24 hours whether he will be in a position to continue the regatta. “Obviously next year’s the big one for us and we need to get Iain down in the physio room and get him fixed up for the next few months and make sure this can’t happen when the one we care about the most, the Olympics, happens.” Skandia Team GBR rise above the setbacks . . . With Skandia Team GBR now hit by a second crew injury and still reeling from the Ben Ainlsie disqualification, Team GBR sailors put in some strong performances across the remaining classes to remain in contention. After an interminable series, Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor finally booked their berth in the women’s match racing quarter-finals, rounding off the repechage stage in style with four wins out of four for the day, and 13 wins to 2 losses for the overall stage. They will now race-off in the quarter-final tomorrow with the Netherlands’ Mandy Mulder. Paul Goodison and Nick Thompson had an impressive day in the Laser event. The Olympic Champion Goodison is in second overall with 4, 1, for his day’s two races, while Nick Thompson is in equal third with Simon Groteluschen of Germany on points. having posted 8, 2, today. Overall leader is Tom Slingsby of Australia, nine points clear of Goodison. Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes are poised in fourth overall in the 470 women’s event with a third and a ninth from their two races while Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark rise to sixth overall with a ninth and a sixth for the day. Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos of Spain lead ahead of Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout of the Netherlands.  Skandia Team GBR has two of its remaining 49er crews in the top ten overall standings – John Pink and Rick Peacock are seventh overall with Dave Evans and Ed Powys in ninth. Leading the 49ers are Kruger and Thorsell, Denmark, followed by Moore and Stork of the USA tied with Warrer and Hansen of Denmark. Elliot Carney is the leading GBR sailor in the RS:X men’s windsurfing event. The development squad sailor is in sixth overall with an impressive 3, 6 today, with Nick Dempsey was left scratching his head after picking up a 15th in his first race, before recovering to fifth in the second. He’s currently in 18th place overall. Nimrod Mesiah of Israel is in first with Przmyslav Miarczynski of Poland second. RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park reflected on a challenging event so far for Skandia Team GBR, but was confident his charges would hold their own over the remainder of the regatta. Wtih Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson missing the racing today, Scheidt and Prada of Brazil are the new leaders in the Star event, one point ahead of Kusznierwicz/Zycki POL and Mendelblatt/Fatih USA. “It’s unfortunate that we’ve had three independent, unrelated challenges to contend with so far at this regatta what with dealing with the causes and fallout of Ben Ainslie’s incident, Ben Rhodes’ injury which is one of those things that could happen to anyone at any time, and now the issue with Iain’s back when he and Bart were in a commanding position in the Star class. "Although World Championship titles are important, our eyes are on the bigger prize of the Olympics in Weymouth in 2012. Despite these setbacks we’re still racing competitively in the remaining events and hopeful that we’ll see some more of our sailors on the podium before the event concludes.” Morrison and Rhodes withdraw from 49er Worlds in Perth . . . British 49er sailors Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes have been forced to withdraw from the Perth 2011 World Championships following an injury to Rhodes sustained during racing on Monday. During the first of their three opening day races, Rhodes suffered a rib strain but in spite of being in considerable pain, he managed to complete Monday’s racing schedule. With the injury restricting Rhodes’ ability to breathe and move freely, the concern lies in his safety to race and so the decision was taken on those grounds to withdraw from the event. Rhodes will return home where he will undergo intensive rehabilitation through the RYA, English Institute of Sport and British Olympic Association facilities so that he can get back into training and sailing with minimal delay, and continue with his planned events next year. Helmsman Stevie Morrison said of their withdrawal: “We’re hugely disappointed not to be able to continue with the event. The good news with Ben’s injury is that it’s fixable, it’s just not fixable overnight so the best thing is for him to return back to the UK where he will receive the full infrastructure of support that will get him back in shape. Ainslie avoids Olympic Games disqualification for now . . .  The incident involving triple gold medallist Ben Ainslie and a media boat at the ISAF World Championships in Perth, could have removed Ainslie from the 2012 Olympic Games in Weymouth this coming summer - and still could.Ainslie, Britain's choice for the Finn event at the 2012 Games, received a two race disqualification for gross misconduct after he climbed aboard the media boat after race 9 of the Finn worlds to confront the crew. In the final stages of the race the media boat came close to the two leading Finn sailors, Postma and Ainslie, to get images of the pair as they battled to the finish line, causing the RIB wake to slow Ainslie. In the official decision the race jury found that the media boat, repeatedly interfered (with the boats racing) over multiple legs. Due to Ainslie’s reaction to this interference in boarding the media boat, he was found guilty of gross misconduct under rule 69 of the racing rules. No action was (or could) taken against the media boat. The apparently uncontrolled actions of the media boat, and other reports of turbulence caused by a low flying helicopter, has raised questions as to the effectiveness of rules in operation to protect the competitors from overzealous media access.  The ISAF has been desperately trying to make sailing a more "media friendly" sport, under the apparent threat of banishment from the Games. Rod Carr, Field of Play Manager for the 2012 Olympic Sailing event, has made the point that unless sailing made itself more public and media friendly it would be out of the Olympic Games within ten years, and that television was king when it came to the running of the sailing events at the 2012 Games. This has raised fears that the traditional structure of the sailing events could be lost in the rush to please the time slots and action requirements of TV. The introduction of a final, non-discardable, double points, medal race for the top ten competitors, sailed on a very short course was the first step. At Weymouth this is to be held on a close to shore course, to allow better spectator viewing (a paying audience is a first for the sport), but the very closeness to the raised shoreline could adversely effect the wind strength and thus the fairness of the racing. Stephen Park, RYA Olympic Manager made the point in the RYA response to the disqualification: "Everyone accepted that there was fault on both the side of the television production crew and indeed on Ben’s side. At the moment the sport seems to be fumbling its way into trying to make the sport more appealing for television but surely there is a better way than trialling new race formats, rule regulations and specifically in this case media initiatives than trialling them at the World Championship which is arguably the most important event in the Olympic cycle outside of the Games themselves." But, while the Perth race jury was able to penalise Ainlsie for his reaction, effectively removing him from any further participation at the world championship, and could have removed him from the 2012 Games. They were unable to do anything regards the offending media boat crew for their actions - Who were given Carte blanche by the ISAF/Perth event rules to get so close - Actions that due to their selfishness or incompetence have effected the result of a major championship and could have effected the outcome of the next Olympic Games in Weymouth. The International Jury will make a report to the ISAF and they could still apply a greater penalty. It would be ironic if the actions of the UK based Sunset & Vine media company resulted in the removal the Team GB top star from his home Games. In the rush to protect their Olympic status, the ISAF has narrowly avoided throwing out the baby with the bathwater. - GN |
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