Dempsey leads GB medal rush

There with further podium glory for British sailors at the Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy in the 470 women’s, 49er and women’s match racing events taking the GBR medal tally to nine from their home World Cup regatta.

Dempsey had competition both from in front and behind heading into the medal race for the RS:X windsurfing event, but fought off the New Zealander Jon Paul Tobin and Dutchman Dorian van Rijssel-berge to claim World Cup gold in his home town.

A jubilant Dempsey said: “It’s fantastic, it’s been such a close, hard, tight week that the medal race was always going to be close.

“I always knew that and to finish it off after having sailed really well this week and do the business was really important.”

With a 16-point margin over nearest rival Giles Scott in the race for gold, Ainslie had a comfortable cushion heading into the final 10-boat showdown in Portland Har-bour. With Scott the only man capable of taking gold from Ainslie’s grasp, the inevitable pre-start match race ensued, with the two Skandia Team GBR boats continuing their duelling at the back of the fleet for the remainder of the race.

Ainslie finished 10th in the medal race, but with Scott just ahead ninth it was more than enough to secure regatta gold by 14 points for the triple Olympic gold medallist and his fourth World Cup victory of the season.

Ed Wright pushed hard to make it three Brits in the podium spots with an emphatic medal race win, but Croatian Ivan Kjlakovic Gaspic managed to keep high enough in the fleet to prevent the British clean sweep.

Ainslie said: “It’s been a really tough week physically with strong winds so I’m really pleased to have come out on top.

“We’ve got a huge quality in the Finn fleet, especially in the British team with Giles and Ed Wright in particular sailing very well.

“It’s been hard work, I won’t hide from that fact. It was one of the toughest events I think I’ve ever done physically.”

“Sometimes that’s the way it goes,” said Ainslie of the medal race battle between him and the 23-year-old Scott. “Giles was the only one who could beat me and in terms of our Olympic selection trials then that was a pretty big deal. “I sealed the regatta win and it worked out okay. It’s always quite tense with those match races, it’s never easy and Giles sailed very well and put up a good fight.

“It’s a tough situation that we only have one spot per class.”

“It was all stacked against me,” conceded Scott. “Sixteen points is a massive deficit, especially when I was the only one who could beat Ben. “I’d be lying if I said I was pleased with silver. I came here to win and unfortunately wasn’t able to do that. “Ben sailed a fantastic week and sailed well again.”

Skandia Team GBR’s Elliot 6m trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor were guaranteed a silver heading in their women’s match racing final against USA’s Anna Tunnicliffe, but were unable to overcome the American crew, losing 3-0 Lush conceded that their silver medal was largely down to uncharacteristically bad starts in the final, but was feeling positive in defeat.

Rodwell’s Hannah Mills and Wyke’s Saskia Clark had it all on to keep hold of a medal position in the 470 women’s event. Heading in the final in bronze medal position, they had the ability to improve to silver, but also to drop out of the podium spots altogether, which they looked like doing after a bad first windward leg.

“But they held their nerve to pull back to third in the medal race and claim silver. The medal race was probably a little bit more exciting than we’d have wanted it to be,” Clark admitted.

“Contrary to what everyone might have thought on the shore, our tracker was working and we did go round the first windward mark with nothing. We had a great downwind which put us right back in the fight and from there on we were under control slightly.”

“It feels amazing,” added Mills, who only started sailing with Clark in February after the retirement of Sarah Ayton.

“Obviously we’re a little bit gutted that we weren’t in the fight for gold, but we went into the medal race and achieved the best result we could, which was amazing.”

It was Olympic champion Paul Goodison who kicked off the Skandia Team GBR medal haul on this final day of competition at the 2012 sailing venue.

In bronze medal heading into the day, assured of a podium spot but with gold a possibility, the Wey-mouth sailor took an aggressive stance at the start, and tried to impose a penalty on the series leader, Tom Slingsby of Australia.

Goodison said: “I was very frustrated with how the jury reacted with it. We didn’t even get a green flag, and that made me a couple of seconds late for the start messing around with protest flags from under your bib and I just missed the start. At the end of the day, the wind went left and I got forced out right and it was all over then.”

“It has been a tough week,” he continued.

“Nick Thompson started off fantastically which piled the pressure on even more. I think it was hard for me not to just fire into the corners and really start to push things but I held it together and kept sailing the way I normally sail and it was only a matter of time before people got found and before I got it right, so I’m really pleased with how I sailed in the finals.”

Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes secured their second straight World Cup podium finish and ended as top British boat in the 49er class. They defended their overnight position of third with a third place in the 10-boat medal race to earn a second consecutive Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta bronze.

Elsewhere, Charlotte Dobson improved her lot in the Laser Radial event – a fourth in the medal race saw her into fourth place overall, with Alison Young seventh.

In the 470 men’s event, Nick Rogers and Chris Grube finished fourth with Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell sixth.

A second in the Star class medal race was not enough to improve Iain Percy and Sherborne’s Andrew Simpson’s overall position of fifth.

Former Weymouth schoolgirl and Olympic bronze medallist Bryony Shaw described her win in the final RS:X women’s medal race as 'bittersweet' as it was not enough to claim a podium place and she finished eighth overall.

She added: “Now it’s all about having another splurge of training before the pre-Olympics.”

Reflecting on the regatta, RYA Olympic manager Stephen Park said: “It’s been a really tough week for everyone, and a pretty physical week with predominantly moderate to strong winds and some fairly long days.

“Lots of the sailors have been looking over their shoulders for their fellow Brits, particularly as this event was the key event in terms of selecting the team for the Olympic Test Event.

“It’s great to see so many people win medals, and also to be able to have so many strong top-10 performers in every single Olympic and Paralympic event.

“Our Paralympic sailors did particularly well, and winning medals sets them up well for the IFDS Worlds next month.”

* the Royal Yachting Association’s Olympic Selection Committee has named the sailors who will compete for Skandia Team GBR at the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta – the official test event for the London 2012 Olympic sailing competition Skandia Team GBR selections: Star: Iain Percy & Andrew Simpson.

Laser Radial: Charlotte Dobson.

Laser: Paul Goodison.

RS:X Men: Nick Dempsey.

RS:X Women: Bryony Shaw.

Finn: Ben Ainslie.

49er: Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes.

470 Men: Nick Rogers and Chris Grube.

470 Women: Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark.

Women’s Match Racing: Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor.

Chris Atkins, chairman of the RYA Olympic Selection Committee, said: “It’s been a great week’s competition at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, with a strong British performance across all 10 Olympic classes.

“The RYA’s Olympic Selection Committee is confident that the teams which delivered the top British performances at regatta will present at strong challenge atthe Weymouth and Portland International Regatta in just under two months’ time.”

* The Olympic Test event will run from July 29 to August 11.