Team GBR sailor Paul Goodison, who will be representing Great Britain at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, finished eighth at the Laser world championship in Turkey yesterday.

Racing took place over seven days in a variety of conditions and throughout the week Goodison had a number of great results including two second places, a third and two sixths, leaving him placed eighth overall after ten races.

Goodison commented: “I didn’t make it easy for myself! Getting a black flag so early on meant that I had to sail far more conservatively than I would have liked and it was pretty hard to be punchy on the start line. On the whole however, I am pleased with my result here and the racing is quite different to that at the Games with a bigger fleet and longer races.”

A second and a third for double Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt of Brazil saw him win back his world championship title, giving him a total of seven world championship wins. Despite getting disqualified in the first race of the day, after getting two yellow flag penalties, his score line throughout the week was good enough to see him take the gold medal.

On the final day Mark Mendelblatt of America managed to overtake Michael Blackburn of Australia to take the silver medal leaving the 2000 Olympic bronze medallist with the bronze.

Goodison will now have a short break before going on to train in Athens next month.

Overall Results (gold fleet)

1, Robert Scheidt, BRA ((6),5,1,1,1,1,2,3,(DNF),2) 16 pts

2, Mark Mendelblatt, USA (4,(25),3,1,3,4,(8),4,4,1) 24 pts

3, Michael Blackburn, AUS (3,(6),2,4,5,1,1,2,7,(DNF)) 25 pts

GBR

8, Paul Goodison ((BFD),14,2,2,12,3,6,(32),22,6) 67 pts

15, Hugh Styles (20,36,19,14,38,8,(DNF),10,6,16) 129 pts

28, Mark Howard (4,13,(OCS),22,15,13,31,(60),57,7) 162 pts

29, Charles Baillie-Strong (34,(50),7,20,27,32,13,(65),18,11) 162 pts

34, Dan Holman (5,46,(OCS),3,6,28,(BFD),12,45,23) 168 pts

39, Andrew Commander (17,13,25,27,(36),30,18,(55),10,37) 177 pts