Ben Ainslie. Image: Isle of Wight Photo Agency.
‘Super Sunday’, ‘Showdown Sunday’, ‘Stellar Sunday’ whatever you want to call it Ben Ainslie (pictured), Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson go out today and try to claim Britain’s first gold medals of London 2012 at Weymouth and Portland.
By the end of today we will also know how Nick Dempsey and Bryony Shaw in the RS:X windsurfing classes will stand as they head into their medal races on Tuesday, while the 49ers return to action after enjoying their rest day yesterday.
In total of six of the 10 classes are in action, while the 470 Women should get their fifth (and sixth!) races under their belts today meaning that they are able to discard their worst score the regatta so far. The 470 Men, Lasers, Laser Radials and Match Race Girls are on a rest day (scheduled start times below)
Ainslie has been involved in a ding dong battle for supremacy with the Dane Jonas Hogh-Christensen all week but the pair go into their final double points showdown race with just two points separating them, meaning it really is winner takes all.
Meanwhile, knowing that they already have a minimum of a bronze sewn up, Percy and Simpson go into their final double points’ showdown race with an eight point advantage over nearest rivals, Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA).
Gold for Ainslie would guarantee his status as the greatest ever sailing Olympian, eclipsing the record of Denmark’s Paul Elvstrom, currently the most successful Olympic sailor ever with four golds from 1948-1960. Ainslie is already Britain’s most decorated sailor with one Laser class silver at his first Games at Atlanta 1996 and three golds at Sydney 2000 (Laser), Athens 2004 (Finn) and Beijing 2008 (Finn).
If the British Star boys do claim gold it will be Iain Percy’s third, the 36-year-old having won his first Olympic title in the Finn class at Sydney 2000. Ainslie is the only Brit to have achieved the same feat of three Olympic sailing golds to date. It would be Simpson’s second gold having won in the Star with Percy in Beijing.
The Star is scheduled to be the first of the two medal races taking place on the spectator Nothe course at 1pm with the Finn medal race following at 2pm.
Racing today: times below are scheduled start times.
Class: Star (men’s keelboat)
Sailor: Iain Percy / Andrew Simpson
Medal Race: 1pm (Nothe)
Target Time: 30 minutes
Fact: Iain and Bart head into the race with an eight point lead over the Brazilians
Class: Finn (men’s heavyweight dinghy)
Sailor: Ben Ainslie
Medal Race: 2pm (Nothe)
Target Time: 30 minutes
Fact: Ben sits two points behind Denmark’s Jonas Hogh-Christensen
Class: 470 Women’s (women’s two-person dinghy)
Sailor: Hannah Mills / Saskia Clark
Race 5: 1pm (Weymouth Bay West)
Race 6: 3.30pm (Nothe)
Target Time: 60 minutes (Weymouth Bay West), 45-60 minutes (Nothe)
Fact: Hannah and Saskia lay second overall after four races
Class: 49er (men’s high performance skiff)
Sailor: Stevie Morrison / Ben Rhodes
Race 12: 2.30pm (Weymouth Bay West)
Race 13: 3.20pm (Weymouth Bay West)
Target Time: 30 minutes
Class: RS:X Women (women’s windsurfer)
Sailor: Bryony Shaw
Race 9: 12pm (Portland Harbour)
Race 10: 12.50pm (Portland Harbour)
Target Time: 30 minutes
Class: RS:X Men (men’s windsurfer)
Sailor: Nick Dempsey
Race 9: 1.30pm (Portland Harbour)
Race 10: 2.20pm (Portland Harbour)
Target Time: 30 minutes
Keep up with the news visit www.rya.org.uk website.
This article has been read 886 times!
