Due to lack of breeze racing was called off on the last day of the 470 world championsh in Koper, Slovenia yesterday (17 September). This meant that Braslavets/Matvienko from the Ukraine won Gold in the Men’s 470 world championship, 20 points clear of RYA Team GBR sailors Nick Rogers and Jo Glanfield who put in a fantastic effort to take the Silver medal. Wilmot/Page of Australia finished one point behind the British pair to take the bronze medal.

Rogers commented, “I am obviously delighted, at one point a medal in the worlds was looking far away, but we have worked hard and learnt a huge amount. At the beginning of the year it was looking good with excellent results at Spa and Hyeres, then we went through a bad patch both my sailing and at home, so I am very pleased that we have managed to pull it off and win a Silver Medal at the world championship.”

The RYA Team GBR sailors seemed to be thriving in the mixed bag of conditions that Koper had to offer, with Graham Vials and Dan Newman putting together a great set of results to finish in seventh position overall. “We have had a difficult week, with an OCS in the first race and then our rudder breaking in the fourth we used up both our discards early on. This meant that we had to sail consistently from then on and make no mistakes. Our results are very encouraging, we have worked really hard and have been sailing well together, so we are both very pleased,” commented a delighted Graham Vials.

In the women’s regatta it was the Greek pairing of Bekatoru/Tsoulfa who stole the show. With their discards being an OCS and a sixth, they recorded nothing worse than a fourth place, to win the gold medal by 33 points. Armstrong/Stowell of Australia took the silver medal, one point in front of Via Dufresne/Azon of Spain.

Christina Bassadone and Jenny Heeley, both currently living in Southampton, Hampshire, put in a promising performance in their first 470 world championship to finish 21st overall. Team mates Libby Greenhalgh and crew Ali Mcleod finished in 29th and Josie Gibson and Saskia Clarke finished a slightly disappointing 32nd position. “All the girls have put in some good performances and showed promising results. Christina has finished inside the top 10 in a couple of races and this is great for her first World Championships. Josie Gibson and Saskia Clark’s results are slightly disappointing. They were unfortunate and Saskia’s injury has been a real problem, on the plus side, they did win a race and had a couple of top 10 results which again in very encouraging,” commented RYA 470 Coach Hamish Calder.

Overall Results

Men’s 470 Gold fleet (overall after 11 races)

1st Braslavets/Matvienko UKR 33 points

2nd Rogers/Glanfield GBR 53 points

3rd Wilmot/Page AUS 54 points

Team GBR positions

7th Vials/Newman 75 points

22nd Plummer/Hawkley 174 points

Womens 470 (overall after 11 races)

1st Bekatoru/Tsoulfa GRE 21 points

2nd Armstrong/Stowell AUS 54 points

3rd Via Dufresne/Azon ESP 55 points

Team GBR positions

21st Bassadone/Heeley 162 points

29st Greenhalgh/Mcleod 197 points

32nd Gibson/Clark 207 points