GBR sailors improve on a breezy second day at Skandia Sail for Gold
Alison Young (Laser Radial
After a calm start to the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, there was no shortage of wind for Tuesday's second day (7 June) with Britain's sailors making gains in the stronger breeze.
It was an especially good day for the British girls at this sixth leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup series, with Laser Radial sailor Alison Young seeing the best scores on the water for Skandia Team GBR with two race wins and a second, Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark advancing into pole position in the 470 women's fleet, and Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor booking their berth in the quarter-finals of the women's match racing event.
With the 2012 sailing venue throwing up conditions of 18-22 knots and big waves out in Weymouth Bay by early afternoon, it was a physical day on the water for all concerned.
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark occupy the top spot of the leaderboard in the women's 470 event with the help of a seventh and a race win from their two races today.
"It's been a good start - we didn't want any shockers on the first couple of days and we've achieved that," said Mills, from Cardiff. "We sailed pretty well today, which was nice in the breeze to show that we can sail against the fast girls as well so we're pretty happy. "We've worked pretty hard on our windier weather set up and style and we've come a long way in the last three weeks - obviously there's lots more to come but I think where we are is a good place if we race well then we should hang in there with the best of them hopefully."
Mills and Clark's teammates Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes had an equally solid day with 3,4 on the water, but remain in 18th overall until they can discard their disqualification from the first race yesterday.
The 24-year-old Alison Young, renowned within Skandia Team GBR for her fitness focus, revelled in the breezier conditions. Her two race wins and a second in the Laser Radial event have boosted her into fifth in the overall standings, with Charlotte Dobson ahead in fourth with 6,3,4 to add to her third from Monday's opening day.
Young, who said her day "could have been a little better!" is feeling confident: "I think I'm pretty well prepared coming into this. We've done a lot of training racing down here with the rest of the squad, trying to figure out the venue.
"The forecast says we could get some breeze for the next couple of days so that will be nice, we'll get to stretch the legs out!" Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor are assured of their place in the quarter-finals of the Elliot 6m women's match racing event. Of their three matches today, they lost to Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) and Silke Halkbrock (GER) but overcame Lotte Meldgaard (DEN) to advance through to the gold group with a 5-2 win-loss record.
In the Paralympic classes, John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas are leading the three-person Sonar event, Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell are up to second thanks to a race win from their only race of the day, while Helena Lucas is 10th and Megan Pascoe 12th in the 2.4mR event.
