With less than two months to go until the 2004 Athens Games, Laser sailor Paul Goodison competing at Kiel Week in Germany scored two results out of the top five in twelve races and finished the regatta in bronze medal position.

Goodison commented, “It has been a good week and I sailed really consistently but unfortunately so did the two guys in front of me so I was a bit unlucky but I am pleased to have finished third.”

The current world champion and double Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt of Brazil continued his winning streak, finishing first in front of Andreas Geritzer of Austria.

The Laser fleet will now continue on to their European championship which take place in Warnemunde, Germany from the 16-24 July2004.

There was tough competition in the 49er class and after ten races there were just two points separating first and fifth place. The Italian pairing of Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello eventually went on to take the regatta win by just one point from world bronze medallists Marcus Baur and Max Groy of Germany.

Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks, who will represent Great Britain in the class at the Games this August sailed a great week and just missed out on the medals, finishing fourth but tied on equal points with the German team of Baur and Groy. Current world champions Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez of Spain finished eighth.

2.4mR sailor Allan Smith, who will represent Great Britain at the Paralympic Games in September, also used Kiel Week as an opportunity to get in some race practice. The fleet completed nine races and Smith scored a number of top ten results to finish the week in sixth place overall.

The 2000 Paralympic gold medallist Heiko Kroger of Germany won the regatta from Dutch sailor Thierry Schmitter with Damien Seguin of France winning the bronze medal.

The 2004 Olympic Games take place from the 14-28 August 2004 and the Paralympic Games from 17-23 September 2004.

Results (from the classes RYA Team GBR competed in)

49er – gold fleet

1, Pietro Sibello/Gianfranco Sibello, ITA (1,9,9,1,1,9,8,4,3,10) 36 pts

2, Marcus Baur/Max Groy, GER (9,2,1,7,4,8,12,7,7,1) 37 pts

3, Marcin Czajkowski/Krzysztof Kierkowski, POL (4,6,14,1,14,7,2,2,4,4) 37 pts

GBR

4, Chris Draper/Simon Hiscocks (2,1,2,7,6,10,5,5,6,(12)) 37 pts

11, Stevie Morrison/Ben Rhodes (1,10,3,5,9,11,17,18,1,3) 50 pts

12, Alister Richardson/Alex Tobutt (10,3,8,5,7,16,13,8,10,2) 56 pts

18, James McIntosh/Phil Kennard (7,12,5,9,16,18,16,17,25,14) 98 pts

24, Ben McGrane/Jonathan Clegg (13,11,11,12,15,20,25,23,18,19) 127 pts

Laser – gold fleet

1, Robert Scheidt, BRA (7,3,RDG,3,1,1,4,1,3,5,2,8) 25 pts

2, Andreas Geritzer, AUT (11,1,3,2,1,5,2,2,2,3,6,12) 27 pts

3, Paul Goodison, GBR (1,2,3,4,3,3,(6),5,4,(19),4,4) 35 pts

Other GBR

21, Hugh Styles (9,11,5,16,5,6,38,14,25,13,ZPF,10) 120 pts

23, Mark Howard (3,5,3,19,14,12,32,20,9,21,22,OCS) 141 pts

27, Charles Ballie-Strong (30,10,12,8,9,14,49,11,33,17,40,30) 184 pts

28, Andrew Commander (5,DNC,6,5,3,8,OCS,37,30,ZFP,25,27) 185 pts

29, Nick Thompson (6,7,8,16,22,17,41,32,32,30,11,26) 185 pts

42, Giles Scott (29,14,15,18,12,5,OCS,48,34,27,38,22) 233 pts

43, Keir Clarke (8,20,17,22,15,16,40,30,49,DSQ,13,31) 239 pts

44, Tim Hulse (12,5,5,12,16,22,45,38,39,DNC,33,40) 245 pts

46, James Gray (7,8,14,15,12,12,36,49,48,41,42,32) 252 pts

2.4mR

1, Heiko Kroger, GER ((2),2,1,(4),1,1,1,1,1) 8 pts

2, Thierry Schmitter, NED ((4),1,3,1,2,3,2,3,(7)) 15 pts

3, Damien Seguin, FRA (1,(5),2,2,3,2,3,2,(6)) 15 pts

GBR

6, Allan Smith ((12),7,7,(10),8,6,6,4,3) 41 pts

9, Megan Pascoe (6,6,9,6,10,5,(11),7,(11)) 49 pts

11, Michael Cogswell ((DNF),10,(11),11,6,4,9,10,9) 59 pts

14, Ken Kelly (13,15,(DNF),(DNS),13,13,14,13,13) 94 pts