RYA Team GBR have won a total of five medals, one gold, one silver and three bronze, at Hyeres Olympic Classes Week which took place over the week of the 25-30 April.

Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson and team of Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb stamped their authority on the Yngling fleet at Hyeres Olympic Classes Week winning the class by 21 points. They led the week from start to finish and scored an impressive four race wins out of ten races giving them the gold medal from Kristin Wagner, Anna Hoell and Veronika Lochbrunner of Germany.

Robertson, Ayton and Webb have taken possession of their new boat this week and were very happy with its performance. Robertson commented: “We are really pleased with the new boat. We never felt happy with any of our previous boats and as keelboat sailing is about tiny differences we are lucky that many man hours have been invested in her.”

The British Yngling team will now travel straight on to Spain to compete at their world championship, which takes place from the 7-15 May.

Team GBR 470 sailors Christina Bassadone and Katherine Hopson put in a great performance during the week and fought hard to leave Hyeres with a silver medal.

Scoring half their results inside the top ten, a win in the first race of the final day saw them going into the final race tied on equal points for first. A fifth place for French sailors Ingrid Pettitjean and Nadege Douroux was enough to see them snatch the lead, leaving Bassadone and Hopson taking the silver, a result they are pleased to have.

Bassadone commented: “We have had a really good week. We are a little disappointed with our result in the last race as we were leading the event, but we are really happy to win a medal. We feel we sailed well but there are still areas that we can improve on and make further gains, so we are pleased about that – we think we can still get better.”

Fellow British 470 sailors Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield also had a good week to take the bronze medal at the event. Leading going into the final day, a tenth and a thirteenth saw them drop to third overall behind Benjamin and Romain Bonnaud of France, who took gold, and silver medallists Marinho Alvaro and Miguel Nunes of Portugal. However, Rogers and Glanfield were pleased with their consistency over the last month.

Glanfield said: “We are disappointed that we did not win, but we are pleased that we have won Palma and finished with a bronze medal here. We made a few mistakes today and dropped down the scoreboard a bit, but we are generally happy with how we are sailing. We now have our sights set on Croatia and our world championship next week and we are really looking forward to it.”

Another up and coming talent to look out for over the next few years are young guns Nic Asher and Elliot Willis who put in a great performance to finish fourth overall.

The second bronze medal was won by Allan Smith in the 2.4mR Paralympic class. The event, which was also the selection event for the British team for 2004 Paralympic Games, saw nine British teams travel to France to battle it out for the chance to be nominated to attend the Paralympic Games in Athens this September.

After eight races in a variety of conditions, Smith came out as top British sailor, beating Helena Lucas by six points. Smith will now have to await the outcome of the RYA Paralympic Selection Committee meeting next Tuesday (4 May) to see whether he will be nominated to the BPA (British Paralympic Association) for the 2004 Paralympic Games.

The final bronze medal for Team GBR was won by Paul Goodison in the Laser class. A third and a sixth place on the final day of the event saw Goodison move up into third place overall behind Andreas Geritzer of Austria. Double Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt of Brazil won the event, scoring nothing worse than a fourth place to take the gold medal.

Europe sailor Laura Baldwin, who has the hard task of following in Shirley Robertson’s gold medal-winning footsteps, took a step closer today when she scored a career best.

Baldwin sailed a fantastic series and on the final day moved from eleventh overall to finish six, after scoring a second and a seventh place on the final day.

Reigning world champion Siren Sundby of Norway dominated the event and won with a race to spare from Sari Multala of Finland with Tania Elias Calles of Mexico finishing third. Baldwin was in a three-way tie for fourth place overall and ended up sixth on count-back.

RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park commented: “It has been a really positive week, and in particular in the women’s disciplines where historically we haven’t been that strong. Shirley, Sarah and Sarah have shown the way and scored an emphatic win in the Yngling class and Christina and Katherine put in a splendid performance today, leading into the final race and just slipping to second in the 470. Laura’s hard work continues to pay off and she had a great day which dragged her up the standings giving her a result to be proud of. It really is a great result for the team who have won medals in five of the seven classes that we have competed in this week.”

Many of the team now head off to their individual European (Finn) and world championships (470, Yngling and Laser) before coming together again at SPA Regatta in Holland from the 26-30 May.

Overall Results

Yngling

1, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Ayton/Sarah Webb, GBR (1,3,4,(8),(11),1,1,1,3,8) 22 pts

2, Kristin Wagner/Anna Hoell/Veronika Lochbrunner, GER ((19),1,12,3,8,4,2,2,11,(13)) 43 pts

3, Sally Barkow/Carrie Howe/Debbie Capozzi, USA (13,2,(21),5,1,2,6,5,(17),14) 48 pts

Other GBR

24, Dominica Lindsey/Annie Lush/Penny Mountford (16,21,17,(25),5,(OCS),20,23,22,24) 148 pts

470 Women

1, Ingrid Pettitjean/Nadege Douroux, FRA (4,8,9,2,(10),5,4,(16),2,5) 39 pts

2, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson, GBR ((30),2,4,8,13,4,10,5,1,(17)) 47 pts

3, Natalia Via Dufresene/Sandra Azon, ESP (1,6,13,5,(14),2,(19),10,12,1) 50 pts

470 Men – Gold fleet

1, Benjamin Bonnaud/Romain Bonnaud, FRA (2,1,(15),1,5,1,10,11,(DNS),9,6) 46 pts

2, Marinho Alvaro/Miguel Nunes, POR (7,3,9,(14),4,2,8,5,(DNS),11,1) 50 pts

3, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield, GBR (4,2,10,6,9,(14),7,1,4,10,(13)) 53 pts

Other GBR

4, Nic Asher/Elliot Willis ((13),6,13,2,5,13,5,10,6,(23),3) 63 pts

13, Graham Vials/Bevis Field (4,(BFD),18,8,7,9,(22),4,5,8,21) 84 pts

Europe – Gold fleet

1, Siren Sundby, NOR (1,1,(21),1,1,3,2,8,1,(DNS)) 18 pts

2, Sari Multala, FIN (5,12,2,3,10,4,(BFD),11,(21),8) 55 pts

3, Tania Elias Calles, MEX (9,(24),5,12,8,5,(BFD),11,7,2) 59 pts

GBR

6, Laura Baldwin, GBR (10,16,11,5,7,(20),(24),3,3,2,7) 61 pts

Laser – Gold fleet

1, Robert Scheidt, BRA (1,(4),3,2,1,1,3,2,(4),1) 14 pts

2, Andreas Geritzer, AUT (3,1,3,2,5,3,6,(8),1,(34)) 24 pts

3, Paul Goodison, GBR (1,7,2,1,2,(16),(19),7,3,6) 29 pts

Other GBR

11, Mark Howard ((25),3,8,2,7,13,15,(18),12,3) 63 pts

16, Dan Holman (3,11,18,11,4,(33),8,11,(19),8) 74 pts

19, Ed Wright (9,12,19,2,16,5,(21),9,13,(25)) 85 pts

28, Andrew Commander (3,13,19,3,1,27,35,31) 97 pts

Finn

1, Emilios Papathanasiou, GRE (4,2,1,(13),2,4,6,3,2) 24 pts

2, Marin Misura, CRO ((22),8,2,10,8,5,8,6,18) 65 pts

3, Rafael Trujillo, ESP ((34),9,25,2,3,2,3,7,22) 73 pts

GBR

6, Andrew Simpson (37,1,7,7,32,6,5,8,(DNF)) 103 pts

2.4mR

1, Thierry Schmitter, NED (1,(OCS),1,1,4,2,1,4) 14 pts

2, Damien Seguin, FRA (2,3,3,2,1,1,(4),2) 14 pts

3, Allan Smith, GBR (3,7,2,6,3,3,(10),5) 29 pts

Other GBR

4, Helena Lucas (4,2,4,7,8,4,6,(9)) 35 pts

6, Andrew Millband (5,6,9,8,2,(12),7,3) 40 pts

7, Megan Pascoe (8,8,8,9,7,(DNF),2,1) 43 pts

8, Michael Cogswell (11,1,(12),11,12,8,3,7) 53 pts

14, Val Millward (15,(OCS),DNF,12,10,10,14,8) 90 pts

15, Brian Harding (9,12,15,13,16,13,(19),17) 95 pts

16, Simon Wright (12,13,17,17,(19),14,13,13) 99 pts

20, Andrew Previte (20,16,18,14,17,16,(DSQ),20,19) 124 pts

Tornado

1, Mitch Booth/Herbert Dercksen, NED (3,6,1,4,3,2,1,1,(DNS),(DNS)) 23 pts

2, John Lovell/Charlie Ogletree, USA (1,8,7,1,1,(11),3,8,3,1,4) 29 pts

3, Fernando Echavarri/Anton Paz, ESP (2,(DNF),8,9,8,(13),1,2,2,4,5) 41 pts

No GBR boats competing

49er

1, Piero Sibello/Gianfranco Sibello, ITA (1,(13),2,(18),1,12,1,7,2,4,5,10,2,5) 52 pts

2, Alberto Padron/Javier De La Plaza, ESP ((20),2,4,2,4,11,4,5,(18),7,8,2,3,4) 56 pts

3, Luis Juan Paez/Carlos De Bricio, ESP (5,(15),(18),6,13,2,6,3,8,3,2,5,1,3) 57 pts

No GBR boats competing

Mistral Men

1, Fabrice Hassen, FRA (1,3,5,1,(19),1,1,3,3,3,1) 22 pts

2, Tom Ashlett, NZL (2,5,3,3,1,2,2,2,1,4,(7)) 25 pts

3, Joao Rodrigues, POR (3,4,1,2,6,3,(OCS),1,2,2,2,6) 30 pts

No GBR boats competing

Mistral Women

1, Olga Maslivets, UKR ((6),1,5,1,2,2,6,5) 22 pts

2, Pauline Perrin, FRA (1,(11),3,3,5,6,2,3) 23 pts

3, Amelie Lux, GER (2,5,1,(10),8,7,1,1) 25 pts

No GBR boats competing