RYA Press Release
30 January 2008
More World glory for Brits as Asher and Willis take 470 gold
Delighted Nic Asher admitted
he and teammate Elliott Willis had done it the hard way as they celebrated
clinching the 470 World Championship crown in Australia before insisting “Now
we want to help Great Britain win gold at Beijing”.
Asher
and Willis’ World Championships looked in doubt when a collision with
Australian pair Mathew Belcher and Nicholas Behrens saw Willis sidelined for
24hours with severely bruised ribs and their score for races eight, nine and 10
calculated as an average of their results from races seven, 11 and 12.
But
having gone into Wednesday’s medal race at Mordialloc Sailing Club in bronze
medal position the pair continued the form that had seen them in and around the
top three throughout the whole series and win the medal race to leapfrog
overnight leaders Alvaro Marinho and Miguel Nunes (POR) and Gideon Kliger and
Udi Gal (ISR) to take gold.
Despite
being in medal contention for most of Gold Fleet series, Nick Rogers and Joe
Glanfield, who are the nominated pairing to represent Great Britain at the
Beijing Olympics this summer, were not at their best for the final two days
Down Under and eventually finished ninth overall.
But Asher
admits that he and Willis, who also won World gold in 2006, will be doing
everything they can to ensure their Great Britain teammates come up trumps when
it comes to the crunch in Qingdao in August.
Asher
said: “The World Championships were our primary focus for this year after
missing out on selection for the Olympics. Now we want to make sure that Great
Britain wins the gold medal at Beijing and we will be helping Nick and Joe as
their training partners in the run up to the Games as well as getting our own
campaign sorted for 2012 selection.
“It was
a topsy-turvy few days for us after having such a great qualifying series we
didn’t know what redress we would get, if any, after the collision. We had to
go out in races 11 and 12, the last two races of the series, with Elliott still
injured, under a lot of pressure to and perform to make sure we were still in
contention going into the medal race.
“We
really had the bit between our teeth in the medal race because we really wanted
to come here and win and because the points were so close going into the final
race we knew we were going to have to sail really well to take the gold.”
Rogers
admitted he and Glanfield would be working hard to now peak in time for China.
He said:
“Everything for us is geared to Qingdao and we are looking forward to getting
on with working towards that goal. We didn’t sail that well in the last two
races of the Series and that really ended our hopes of a medal before the medal
race.
“We are
disappointed because we have not sailed at the level we normally sail and this
is not how we see ourselves. But it is amazing for Nic and Elliott to have won
the World title again and I’ve been very impressed with them all week. It is
great for us to have that depth of talent to work with in the build up to
Qingdao.”
Meanwhile,
Beijing-nominated pair Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark finished their
Women’s 470 Worlds’ campaign on a high sailing to third in the medal race to
take seventh overall.
After a
difficult week, the duo staged an amazing comeback in the final two races of
the Series, nailing two bullets to climb from 16th to ninth and
clinch their spot in the final. American pair Erin Maxwell and Isabelle
Kinsolving took the overall title.
470
World Championship, Mordialloc Sailing Club, Port Phillip, British results:
Men’s:
1st
Nic Asher/Elliott Willis
9th
Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield
18th
Luke Patience/Chris Grube
Women’s
7th
Christina Bassadone/Saskia Clark
For rights free images for
editorial use, visit Skandia Team GBR’s Media Archive at http://media.skandiateamgbr.com
ENDS
Karenza
Morton
RYA Racing Communications Officer
T: 023 80 604219
M: 07769 505203