British Bite the Bullets as Homegrown Heroes Hold on in Aarhus Euro 49ers
As the dynamic Danish duo of Ida Marie Baad Nielsen and Marie Thusgaard Olsen held onto their lead in the women’s 49er FX, two British boats dominated the men’s 49er fleet on day three of the European Championships in Aarhus, Denmark.
On a day of light winds that tested and compressed the fleet in the beautiful Bay of Aarhus, Britain’s Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign took the overall lead in the 49ers by 11 points. They won the first of two races yesterday in the 31-boat gold fleet, who had come through the field of 91 boats and two days of qualification on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Fletcher and Sign had to show their mettle, holding off 2008 gold medallist and another local favourite, Jonas Warrer, who has formed a formidable new partnership with 2012 bronze medal winning crew, Peter Lang. The experienced and determined Danish partnership are still in the hunt, in fourth overall.
Both on and off the water Denmark, the country of coasts, is underlining its credentials as one of the sailing nations. The organisers of this event; Sport Event Denmark, Sailing Aarhus and Sport Aarhus Events are considering bidding to stage the 2018 ISAF Sailing World Championships and if they do it will be in Aarhus, their city of sails. With so much local talent there will be no shortage of crowds.
“We had quite a battle with Jonas,” Fletcher said. “We went left at the first beat, he went right and he came out just ahead and then we were battling around the whole course. He was tacking on us and we could hear the Danes cheering them round the marks, he’s a local hero, it was down to the wire and we got him on the last third of the run, really happy to take a bullet home.
“We were a bit disappointed in the last race (finishing seventh), but two top ten results in gold fleet – we couldn’t hope for any better. We hadn’t raced the Kiwis until today. Gold fleet is where it matters.”
After dominating in the heavier winds on Wednesday, overnight leaders Marcus Henson and Josh Porebski, stumbled in the shifty air and elite field, finishing 17th and then 10th. They held onto second overall, but only just, as David Evans and Edward Powys made it a British double, in a race that started in 8 knots but was finished early as it dropped to 2 knots. The win took them into third place overall. There was symmetry as both British boats took a first and seventh place, the only boats in the 49er fleet to achieve two single digit results.
In the women’s FX Nielsen and Olsen had a harder day, finishing 14th and 11th, but they were not alone and after their magnificent Wednesday, winning two of the three races and finishing second in the other, they still lead the Brasilians by 9 points.
“We had some troubles today, you can go from first to 20th in one shift,” Olsen said. “We prefer heavy winds but we fight for every place.” After some home comforts they will doubtless be ready. “It’s nice to be competing at home because you sleep in your own bed and your mum sleeps for you,” Nielsen said.
The top 16 women’s pairs of the 37-strong fleet qualify for the gold fleet tomorrow. America’s Anna Tunnicliffe, the 2008 laser radial Olympic champion, and crew Molly Vandemoer, celebrated Independence Day in style by striking a blow for the dinghy and match racers against the skiff sailors in this new Olympic class, with a victory in the final race of the day. That made sure of their place in the gold fleet after starting the day 23rd.
