Is there no stopping the man? Yet again,
Ben Ainslie defies all belief in winning gold at the Olympic Test Regatta. This
was his first regatta in the Finn since winning gold at the previous Test
Regatta exactly a year earlier. And his previous regatta in the Finn was a year
before that, in autumn 2005 when he won the fourth of his back-to-back Gold
Cups in Moscow.
So, for more than half of this current
Olympic cycle, Ben has barely set foot in the Finn and yet he's still the man
to beat. And Skandia Team GBR remains the team to beat, with a staggering -
even by its own high standards - five golds and one silver. All of this
achieved in a venue which struggled to deliver adequate breeze for most of the
regatta.
Our worst fears about Qingdao's weather
were confirmed this year, with many days lost to lack of wind. In its defence,
every day was sailable for the week leading up to the event, and for the Medal
Races the breeze came in at 15 to 17 knots, with capsizes determining the
outcome of many of the medals, including Ben's gold in the Finn. So this had
been the Olympics, it wouldn't have been an unmitigated disaster. The TV
stations would have got their footage. Let's hope the wind comes to the sport's
rescue when it really matters next year.
So, back to the Ainslie story. Ben went
into the final with an 11-point lead over Croatian Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic, but
found himself way down the fleet when he recrossed the start line thinking he
had jumped the gun. The Croatian at one stage managed to get enough places
between him and Ben to move into the gold medal position, but was overtaken on
the final downwind leg and then capsized 100 metres from the finish line to end
all hopes of a coup.
Finishing 7th out of 10 was not
a great conclusion by Ben's standards, but it was enough. "I did a pretty good job of losing it out there today,"
said Ben afterwards. "I had a terrible start but luckily I was able to dig deep
and get back a few places."
So did Ben ‘jag' his
gold, thanks to the misfortune of others? Well, he certainly wasn't in control
of his destiny in quite the way that he is used to, but a win is a win. Britain
won golds by the skinniest of margins in other fleets too. Paul Goodison went
into the Laser Medal Race in pole position and like Ben suffered a nailbiting
race to scrape across the line in 7th, just three seconds ahead of
the next boat. He clung on to gold by a single point.
It was just as
dramatic in the 49er, where newly crowned World Champions Stevie Morrison and
Ben Rhodes had been struggling in the drifting conditions. They turned on a
great performance on the final day of qualifying racing to jump from 7th
to silver medal position. But they too suffered a bad start in the Medal Race.
Like Ben's race, the Exmouth lads profited from some capsizing by their rivals,
and then grabbed back four places down the final run to the finish, a whopping
8 points under the double-counting points system. They took gold by a single
point from reigning Olympic Champions from Spain, Iker Martinez and Xabi
Fernandez.
Bryony Shaw sailed
the best regatta of her career to win gold in the RS-X Women's division, and
Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson swept to victory in the Yngling. The
strength across just about every Olympic discipline is phenomenal. Iain Percy and
Andrew Simpson failed to win a medal here, finishing 6th overall, but
they did at least win the windy Medal Race. This duo, now unencumbered by
America's Cup commitments, have a year to address Percy's self-acknowledged
weak spot in the lighter breezes. Leigh McMillan and Will Howden finished 5th
which, added to their 5th place in the Worlds, shows they are there
or thereabouts in the Tornado, a class which is proving very difficult to find
any consistency across the wind range.
Biggest
disappointments for the British team were Nick Dempsey's performance in the
RS-X Men's division where the Olympic bronze medallist just missed the cut for
the Medal Race, and Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark finishing 12th
in the 470 Women. These sailors have enough grit and determination to put right
the wrongs over the coming 12 months. Even the Laser Radial class, which
traditionally has been Skandia Team GBR's weakest spot, was no disaster - with
Charlotte Dobson notching up a very creditable 6th overall.
The GBR juggernaut
seems unstoppable, but of course that is never really the case. Note just how
close some of those medals were. What's amazing is that in just about every
marginal case, the Brits emerged on top. When you're hot, you're hot.
Two nations that are
very much coming to the fore, and which look closest to threatening British
dominance, are Australia and New Zealand. Both fared disastrously in the last
Olympics, but Australia in particular is coming on strong again. The Aussies
put in a good performance in Cascais, and did it again in Qingdao with two
golds, a silver and a bronze. The two golds came in the 470 class, the triple
World Champions Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page taking the Men's division. More
surprising was young team Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson winning the
Women's 470, while triple World Champions from the Netherlands, Marcelien de
Koning and Lobke Berkhout, struggled in the light breezes to finish a distant 6th
overall.
The Americans have
shown signs of a resurgence in recent years, but there was little evidence of
that in Qingdao, with USA having to wait until the final day for a medal, Anna
Tunnicliffe securing gold in the Laser Radial. What really puts Britain's
performance into perspective is that only two other European nations bagged
more than a single medal. France picked up four bronze medals and the
Netherlands two silvers. Germany won none.
Robert Scheidt and
Bruno Prada are beginning to look dominant in the Star, with the Brazilian
helmsman usurping another former Laser sailor, New Zealand's Hamish Pepper and
Carl Williams, who were winning everything last season. It was a close run
thing between these two in the Medal Race, with Scheidt using his legendary
downwind technique to gybe and surf past the Kiwis into 2nd place in
the Medal Race, and take a four point victory overall.
If there was one team
that positively relishes the driftathon conditions promised by Qingdao, it must
be the Austrian Tornado team, Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher. They have
won the past two Olympic Games in predominantly light conditions, and now they
look towards a third Olympic title if Qingdao lives up (or is that lives down?)
to expectations. The Austrians dominated the Tornados, with Darren Bundock and
Glenn Ashby having to make do with silver.
However, the fly in
the Austrian ointment is that they have yet to qualify the nation for the
Games. Hagara and Steinacher confirmed their reputations as one-breeze wonders
with a 20th at the breezy Cascais Worlds a month earlier, and with
next year's Worlds set to take place in New Zealand it's a distinct possibility
that their last chance for qualifying for China might also be a windy affair.
So the pressure is on the Austrians. While the rest of the Olympic world will
be skipping on the Xmas pudding this December 25th, perhaps the Austrians will
be tucking into double portions before flying south to Auckland.
Nick Craig
Success continues to
come thick and fast for British sailors in other arenas, not least for Nick
Craig who in the past few weeks has notched up victories in the OK World
Championships, the Enterprise Nationals and the Enterprise Worlds. He now has a
hat trick of OK and Enterprise World titles to his name, which must make him
one of the most successful amateur sailors of all time.
When I spoke to Nick,
he was on his way down to the OK Nationals in Felpham, and assuming he wins
that one too, he yet again finds himself in the position of being to choose
which of the OK or Enterprise he will represent at the Endeavour Trophy this
autumn.
Nick is an incredible
example for anyone looking for success at international level whilst still
being able to hold down a full-time job. Well, almost full-time, because it
turns out that Procter & Gamble are quite employers. Nick, who works as a finance
manager there, spends an estimated eight or nine weeks a year in competition
thanks to P&G's understanding, not to mention that of his wife Emma.
"It's not a great
career move," Nick admits of his extended unpaid leave. "To go up to the next
level I'd have to be prepared to move, probably to the headquarters in Geneva,
which wouldn't be great for the sailing." So Nick has foregone promotion to be
able to pursue his passion on the water.
Nick has also been
racing the Finn for the past couple of seasons, never with any Olympic intent,
but simply to learn from the best. This year he had his best result, coming an
impressive 20th at the Europeans, ahead of 20 or more full-time
Olympic campaigners. "I came 40th the year before, so I thought if I
could make the top 30 - at a stretch - then that would be a great result." So
the 20th overall was a massive, unexpected bonus. "I was lucky
because it was a light-wind week, so I wasn't at my usual disadvantage compared
with all the full-time guys, who are 10 years younger and twice as fit as me."
Not that the 33-year-old is unfit by any means. He commutes the 10 miles to
work morning and evening on his bike, as well as putting in regular gym
sessions.
Having bagged a
brilliant result in the Finn, Nick reckons he has taken it about as far as he
could, so he has sold the boat. The other reason was that he was struggling to
maintain a fighting weight of 95kg, which was making him too heavy for his
other boats of choice. So having stopped Finn sailing he is back to 87kg, still
on the heavy side for the Enterprise, but about right for the OK.
Crewed in the Ents by
Fiona Clarke, a mega-fit half-marathoner who can run in the 13-odd miles in 1
hour 19 minutes, Nick won the Worlds and Nationals with a race to spare. The OK
Worlds didn't come so easily. He had to fight tooth and nail with the Kiwis who
showed superior boatspeed in the strong winds. But now he has got the hat
trick, matching New Zealander Leif Armitt's three victories in the early 90s,
he wants to go one better with a bid to win next year's OK Worlds. He is also looking
for a new challenge to get his teeth into this winter. Nick hasn't settled on
quite what that is, but he did mention the possibility of a B14. If so, a
message to all B14 sailors. Get in the gym!