Related BBC sites

Page last updated at 09:15 GMT, Saturday, 9 August 2008 10:15 UK

British sailors make bright start

News image

Cannot play media. Sorry, this media is not available in your territory.

Light winds made for difficult conditions on Saturday

Great Britain made a good start in the sailing with the Yngling crew taking the overall lead, while Ben Ainslie is third in the Finn class.

The Yngling crew of Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson claimed a second and third-placed finish to lead by four points overall.

Double Olympic champion Ainslie led for much of his first race but on the final leg he became becalmed and ended 10th.

However, he hit back to win the second race and finish the day third overall.

Ainslie, 31, is attempting to surpass Rodney Pattison as Britain's most successful Olympic sailor.

We could have easily given up on the first race but we knew we had to keep going and it all came good

Yngling sailor Sarah Webb

He held a 10-second lead over Croatia's Ivan Kljakovic-Gaspic at the final mark in the opening race but floundered in the light winds on the final leg to finish 61 seconds behind Greece's Aimilios Papathanasiou at the finish.

The second race for the heavyweight dinghy fleet saw Ainslie firmly in the driving seat by the end of the first lap and his victory moves him up to third behind Poland's Rafael Szukiel and American Zach Railey.

The wind in Qingdao is renowned for having light and variable winds and Saturday saw typically difficult conditions.

"The first race is a great example of that, where I was in the lead and the breeze shut down and came in from a different direction, and I lost 10 places," said Ainslie.

606: DEBATE
"It's something I think we're all going to have to deal with here. It's going to happen to everyone at some stage. It's just about trying to keep your powder dry and wait for your chances.

"My own experience with the Olympics has always been having a disastrous first day, so it doesn't feel quite so bad. Hopefully I can build from this in due course."

News image

Cannot play media. Sorry, this media is not available in your territory.

Video - Ainslie rues dropped places

Ayton, Webb and Wilson are hot favourites to win the Olympic gold after claiming back-to-back world championships.

They were 15th and last at the first mark in their opening race and were still down in 11th at the final mark but a strong run to the finish line saw them leap into second.

Their third place in the second race puts them four points clear of Canada with the Netherlands one point further back.

"It's definitely a patience game, especially in the light winds," said Webb.

"We could have easily given up on the first race but we knew we had to keep going and it all came good."

Sailing medals are decided over an 11-race series, with the winner being the sailor with the lowest number of points accumulated during the series.

The winner of each race receives one point, the second two points and so on, with the number of points in the final race - called the medal race - being doubled.

After five races competitors discard their worst result, so the 10th place in Ainslie's first race may well end up being discounted.


Olympics venues map

BBC Sport's Olympic map

Find out about the Beijing sailing venue

Sailing medals table

Sunday, 24 August 2008 10:17 UK
RankCountryGoldSilverBronzeTOTAL
1also show each event results forGreat Britain4116
470 - Men's Two Person Dinghy010
Finn - Heavyweight Dinghy100
Laser - Men's One Person Dingh100
RS:X - Women's Windsurfer001
Star - Men's Keelboat100
Yngling - Women's Keelboat100
2also show each event results forAustralia2103
470 - Men's Two Person Dinghy100
470 - Women's Two Person Dingh100
Tornado - Multihull010
3also show each event results forSpain1102
49er - Skiff010
Tornado - Multihull100
4also show each event results forUSA1102
Finn - Heavyweight Dinghy010
Laser Radial - Women's One Per100
5also show each event results forChina1012
Laser Radial - Women's One Per001
RS:X - Women's Windsurfer100
6also show each event results forDenmark1001
49er - Skiff100
7also show each event results forNew Zealand1001
RS:X - Men's Windsurfer100
8also show each event results forNetherlands0202
470 - Women's Two Person Dingh010
Yngling - Women's Keelboat010
9also show each event results forFrance0123
470 - Men's Two Person Dinghy001
Finn - Heavyweight Dinghy001
RS:X - Men's Windsurfer010
10also show each event results forBrazil0112
470 - Women's Two Person Dingh001
Star - Men's Keelboat010
11also show each event results forItaly0112
Laser - Men's One Person Dingh001
RS:X - Women's Windsurfer010
12also show each event results forLithuania0101
Laser Radial - Women's One Per010
13also show each event results forSlovenia0101
Laser - Men's One Person Dingh010
14also show each event results forArgentina0011
Tornado - Multihull001
15also show each event results forGermany0011
49er - Skiff001
16also show each event results forGreece0011
Yngling - Women's Keelboat001
17also show each event results forIsrael0011
RS:X - Men's Windsurfer001
18also show each event results forSweden0011
Star - Men's Keelboat001

see also
Team GB photos - day one
09 Aug 08 |  Olympics
Where Britain's medals will be won
05 Aug 08 |  Olympics
Olympics blog
07 Aug 08 |  Olympics
Beijing 2008
14 Feb 08 |  Olympics


related bbc links:

related internet links:
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites