British sailors concluded the Miami World Cup regatta with eight medals on 28 January, including golds for Nick Dempsey, Paul Goodison and the women’s match racing trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor, with podium spots also going to some of GBR’s developing stars.
30 January 2012
With two silver medals already secured from the SKUD and Sonar Paralympic teams on Friday, finals day at the Rolex Miami OCR proved a lucrative one for Skandia Team GBR with six more medals claimed by British crews in four of the Olympic classes.The first gold medal of the day went to the World Championship silver medallists Macgregor, Lush and Macgregor in their women’s match racing final against Australia’s Olivia Price. In contrast to their quarter and semi-final bouts, the British crew took an early lead, winning the first match by a minute before pulling two ahead in the light and difficult conditions.Price then fought back to claim the third match and looked set to draw level in the fourth after gaining a large lead on Macgregor’s team, as crew Annie Lush explained.
“In the final race in particular we were leading and then we picked up some weed around our keel which really slowed us down – the Australians managed to get about half a leg ahead of us. “I think Olivia then picked up some weed as well so we were able to catch up a bit, but then she got stopped by some big chop from all the boats that were around and so we were able to overtake her to get the win,” Lush continued.“We had some pretty crazy racing today, that’s for sure!”The trio’s last World Cup victory came in Hyeres, France, in April last year, and they’re delighted to have got the Olympic year off to a podium-topping start in Miami.
G4S 4teen Guatemalan sailor Juan Maegli clenched the 17th spot in the Laser class. Juan will next compete in Tenerife, where he will continue to prepare for the London 2012 Games, having qualified at the ISAF World Championships in Perth in December. “It’s a great start to 2012 for us – it doesn’t feel like we’ve sailed particularly well this week but we held it together, pulled off some great results along the way and we’ve learned a huge amount which we’ll take forward into our winter training,” said the 31-year-old Lush. It was a straight head-to-head between Britain’s Olympic Champion Paul Goodison and Brazil’s Bruno Fontes – whichever of them finished higher in the medal race would claim the gold.Mastering the light wind racing, Goodison ground out a second in the medal race to Fontes’ fifth, handing him the gold – his second in two weeks in the States after he claiming victory at Key West on the Melges 32 ‘Red’.“It’s been nice to come and do Miami – it wasn’t originally in the plan to come and do this event but after a really good week last week sailing in Key West it made sense to stop by here and work on some of the things I need to before the Games,” Goodison explained. “There are only I think three regattas that I’ll do left before the Olympics, so it’s good to be working on the things that I need to and to be improving on the things that I’ve set out to do.”“I had some good training in Perth, I’ve done some good work this week and I’m feeling confident looking forward.” After a postponement to their scheduled morning start due to the light winds, the men’s RS:X medal race finally got underway early afternoon, with Nick Dempsey heading into the race with an almost unassailable 18 point lead.With a scorecard counting only first places, Dempsey clinched his gold in style with another race win to round off the regatta. After a difficult and disappointing World Championship in Perth, Dempsey was pleased to have found form this week.“It’s quite nice [to win a World Cup] isn’t it – getting all firsts this week was pretty good so I’m very happy.“It’s definitely all going to plan and it’s all on track. It was needed, the result at this event, and I’m really looking forward to the next few months.”Dempsey’s training partner Elliot Carney also made it a British 1-2 and his first World Cup regatta medal when he claimed silver after a hard-fought medal race. The 22-year-old went into the 10-boat finale in second place but with the possibility of dropping out of the medals, but he fought to the end in the painfully light conditions to finish second in the race and retain the silver medal spot.Carney’s fellow development squad sailors Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth also claimed their first World Cup regatta success, joining Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark on the 470 women’s podium.Mills and Clark continued their medal-winning run with a silver to add to their growing collection, while Weguelin and Ainsworth picked up bronze thanks to an impressive win in the medal race on Saturday.Weguelin and Ainsworth are part of Mills and Clark’s training group in their quest for 2012 gold and are relishing the experience.
Mills and Clark were satisfied with their silver, but frustrated that their chances of going one step higher on the podium had slipped away on Friday.
Skandia Team GBR sailors also featured in the Laser Radial final, where Alison Young and Charlotte Dobson ended their regatta just outside of the podium spots in fourth and fifth respectively, while development squad duo Ben Saxton and Richard Mason finished ninth in the 470 men’s event.
G4S 4teen Guatemalan sailor Juan Maegli clinched the 17th position in the Laser class. Juan will next compete in Tenerife, where he will continue to prepare for London 2012. He qualified to represent his home country at the next Olympic Games at the ISAF World Championships in December.