As the 2003 Pre-Olympic event draws to a close, Great Britain will be leaving Athens with four medals, two gold and two silver, ensuring them the top spot on the nations medal table. Three of those medals were won yesterday in the Finn, Yngling and 470 men’s class and the final medal, a silver, came today from Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith in the 49er fleet.

Brotherton and Asquith sailed well yesterday to guarantee a medal but had to compete in the final race today to ensure that is was of the desired colour. Going into the final race in silver medal position, they just had to keep the Spanish behind them in order to take the silver.

At one point in the race they were down in thirteenth place but sailed a great upwind leg and moved up into third place by the penultimate mark. This position they kept until the end, which ensured that they won the silver medal, with Chris Nicholson and Gary Boyd of Australia taking the gold and Piero Sibelo and Gianfranco Sibelo of Italy winning the bronze medal.

A delighted Brotherton said: “This result confirms that we are up there going into the world championships and in conditions that we would expect to experience at that event. This result gives us the confidence to play our own game at the worlds and it proves that the 49er racing will be a long slog with 16 races, so not only is it good practice for next year but also for Cadiz next month.”

Also finishing the series today was Leigh McMillan and Mark Bulkeley in the Tornado class. This relatively young British pairing had moved into the medal positions by the middle of the week and although they could not hold on to a medal, they finished eleventh in the final race which was enough to see them hold on to fifth place overall. The gold medal went to the 2000 Olympic silver medallists Darren Bundock and John Forbes of Australia.

McMillan commented: “We would have like to be in the medal zone and we were looking good halfway though the regatta but we had one tricky day and that put us out of contention, but we were able to recover and managed to finish fifth instead of dropping further down the scores. We feel we are on target but there is still so much to learn in these boats, we just need to find a little extra boat speed and we believe this will give us a little more of a competitive edge to be in touch with the top three players.”

At the end of the pre-Olympic regatta, Great Britain established itself at the top of the medal table with four medals – gold medals came from Olympic gold medallists Ben Ainslie and Shirley Robertson and silvers from Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield and Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith. Spain was next in line scoring three medals – one gold and two silver, follow by Brazil and Greece who both won two gold medals.

RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park summed up the week: “Despite a week that has not gone entirely our way, we have done well to come away with two gold and two silver medals and it’s going to get tougher and tougher to maintain that form. But, we will be going into the Olympic year as the worlds most successful sailing nation in Olympic classes and I think that this fact gives our entire team great confidence.”

Overall Results

Finn

1, Ben Ainslie, GBR (1,6,1,1,2,5,(13),3,5,2,4) 30 pts 2, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, POL (9,3,5,(DNF),3,11,1,4,2,1,12) 51 pts 3, Rafael Trujillo, ESP (5,2,(19),6,9,2,8,9,1,8,2) 52 pts

49er

1, Chris Nicholson/Gary Boyd, AUS (3,4,(18),1,11,1,(OCS),3,7,1,12,4,4,4,2,4) 61 pts 2, Paul Brotherton/Mark Asquith, GBR (10,2,7,2,(15),5,8,(13),8,3,3,8,2,2,11,3) 74 pts 3, Piero Sibelo/Gianfranco Sibelo, ITA (2,6,6,4,4,15,1,8,11,6,1,10,10,(OCS),(20),1) 85 pts

Star

1, Torben Grael/Marcelo Ferreira, BRA ((12),2,1,7,1,6,1,9,8,8,5) 48 pts 2, Paul Cayard/Phil Trinter, USA (10,3,10,1,3,3,(15),6,4,2,7) 49 pts 3, Marc Pickel/Anton Kolb, GER (2,9,4,5,5,5,8,5,5,(OCS),6) 54 pts

GBR

7, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell (1,4,17,6,(DNF),DNS,5,3,10,1,1) 67 pts

Yngling

1, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Webb/Sarah Ayton, GBR ((10),4,9,3,2,4,4,3,6,3,1) 39 pts 2, Hannah Swett/Joan Touchette/Melissa Purdy, USA (3,1,2,(10),4,1,8,9,1,5,10) 44 pts 3, Kristin Wagner/Anna Hoell/Veronika Lochbrunner, GER (6,6,1,6,(9),5,2,2,8,1,7) 44 pts

470 Women

1, Sofia Bekatorou/Emilia Tsoulfa, GRE (1,3,(OCS),2,7,4,5,11,5,5,5) 47 pts 2, Susanne Ward/Michaela Ward, DEN (3,11,2,10,5,13,(13),2,3,(29),2) 64 pts 3, Ingrid Petitjean/Nadege Douroux, FRA ((OCS),12,6,6,2,10,1,3,10,15,4) 69 pts

GBR

8, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson ((OCS),4,16,3,14,8,8,15,3,6,22) 99 pts

470 Men

1, Johan Molund/Martin Andersson, SWE (4,7,3,10,11,10,4,(DNF),6,1,3) 59 pts 2, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield, GBR (7,12,6,6,12,1,10,(DNF),5,7,7) 73 pts 3, Gabrio Zandona/Andrea Trani, ITA (20,2,2,17,10,(24),9,4,1,6,9) 80 pts

Laser

1, Robert Scheidt, BRA ((15),4,2,1,3,1,11,5,(24),2,5) 49 pts 2, Daniel Birgmark, SWE (1,8,(12),2,12,8,5,2,4,1,8) 51 pts 3, Mate Arapov, CRO (8,6,3,6,2,(OCS),3,15,3,3,7) 56 pts

GBR

30, Paul Goodison (6,9,13,(DSQ),11,OCS,OCS,DNS,DNS,DNC,DNC) 249 pts

Mistral Men

1, Nikolas Kaklamanakis, GRE (8,5,(DNF),1,1,1,1,1,4) 22 pts 2, Gal Fridman, ISR ((11),3,2,4,2,6,2,2,1) 22 pts 3, Yuanguo Zhou, CHN (6,7,1,9,14,2,3,5,(16)) 47 pts

GBR

13, Nick Dempsey ((17),9,14,12,7,11,12,8,17) 90 pts

Mistral Women

1, Alessandra Sensini, ITA (1,2,1,1,1,1,4,2,(6)) 13 pts 2, Lee Lai Shan, HKG (2,3,6,2,4,(14),2,3,2) 24 pts 3, Faustine Merret, FRA (4,4,2,(8),7,5,5,1,7) 35 pts GBR

8, Natasha Sturges (9,12,(OCS),5,3,8,11,8,5) 61 pts

Europe

1, Siren Sundby, NOR (2,6,(DNF),1,2,6,1,DNS,1,1,3) 51 pts 2, Min Dizillie, BEL ((17),8,3,7,7,10,3,1,4,13,4) 60 pts 3, Sarah Macky, NZL (1,13,1,6,3,3,13,11,(22),7,5) 63 pts

GBR

20, Andrea Brewster (13,19,10,24,18,22,22,(OCS),19,18,8) 173 pts

Tornado

1, Darren Bundock/John Forbes, AUS (1,1,3,5,(11),1,1,1,3,6,3) 25 pts 2, Roman Hagara/Hans-Peter Steinacher, AUT (3,3,2,11,7,(12),5,2,2,3,1) 39 pts 3, Santiago Raul Lange/Carlos Mauricio Espinola, ARG (2,2,1,(OCS),5,10,3,3,1,8,5) 40 pts

GBR

5, Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley, GBR (6,14,10,7,1,2,6,(17),16,5,11) 78 pts