© trofeoprincesasofia.org
World Cup Sailing in Mallorca puts Team GB on top
Only one gold but Brits take the top spots in Palma
The British Olympic hopefuls had some encouraging results and some lessons to take away from the first European World Cup Regatta of the season in Mallorca last weekend. Ben Ainslie was the only member of the British team to leave Majorca with a gold despite having to change his dinghy during one of the races.
After damaging his boat before the start of one of the races Ainslie came ashore and found a unused hull and switched his rig into it.
"There was no real chance of continuing in the race in that state, so the best option was to come ashore and luckily there was a spare boat lying in the dinghy park that no-one was using. So we just switched the rigs round, came back out and just had to try and get a reasonable race to get round the course. As it turned it out I was not very quick at all but managed to sail reasonably well and had very good speed downwind and I finished third" said Ainslie after the race.
Despite this set back, the three time Olympic gold medallist's third gave him an untouchable 35 point lead and meant that the gold was his even before the last race began.
"It's a real boost to win here after a very difficult period so I'm very happy with the way I've been sailing and things in general, and my body seems to have held up reasonably well," said Ainslie whose season had begun with a back injury that required an operation. "I'm happy but there's a lot of work to do yet in the coming months in the build-up to the Games, and I'll keep pushing to try and get better and be better prepared."
It was silver medals for the rest of the team with reigning Olympic Champions Paul Goodison and the team of Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson coming second in the Laser and Start classes respectively. In the case of Percy and Simpson the difference between gold and silver was slim with the duo finishing one point behind the winning team, Brazil's duo of Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada.
"You never like to lose, not by a point and not when the last wave cost us the regatta, but it's fine," said Percy. "It's the first event of the season, and I think winning would have been flattering of where we are at – we've got a lot of work to do and losing the regatta helps you realise that and I think at this time of the year that's important. Last year we won this event really quite comfortably, and in some ways I look back and I think it made us maybe think we were a little bit ahead of where we were. This year it's been drummed in pretty hard with some schoolboy errors. We've got some work to do."
For the rest of the Brits there were no medals but the team still came out on top overall. With the Olympics now just 107 days away the team can take a lot from this first meeting of the season in Palma de Mallorca and hopefully take some medals away from London.
For more information on sailing, visit our Sailing in Majorca page.
