G4S 49ers in the medal hunt
1 April 2010
Wednesday saw a full day of race action at the ISAF Sailing World Cup event in Palma, with Laser sailor Nick Thompson and Andrew Mills in the Finn class swelling the ranks of British boats in podium positions heading into the final two days of the regatta.
In the 49er class, the battle for British supremacy as well as regatta medals continues – G4S 49er’s Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes lost some ground to the leading French crew of Manu Dyen-Stephane Christidis and are seven points behind them in second, with Chris Draper and Peter Greenhalgh currently in the bronze medal position, three points behind their teammates.
The two-time World Champion Draper, who teamed up with Greenhalgh a year ago after time out of the class, was in confident mood in spite of a challenging day.
“It was a day of quite a lot of bad luck, but we kind of escaped it with some reasonable [results],” he explained.
“We had a bit of a bad one in the first race – we were doing quite well and then sadly my trapeze hook snapped, which ended up in quite catastrophic circumstances after that! We rescued a reasonable result and then we had a 3rd and a 12th in a race where we made one little mistake and then a second in the last race.”
“We really are a new team and that takes a while to gel” Draper said. “I think the things we’re having to improve on and work on, are not necessarily the same things as everyone else, they’re more about us working together as a pair and getting good at that.”
Racing at the Princess Sofia Trophy will continue on Thursday, with the final 10-boat medal races scheduled for Friday.