Ben snatches lead

28th January 2008  

Florian Raudaschl (AUT) finished 11th today

The remarkable British sailor Ben Ainslie, propelled by a gybe onto a wave in the last few
seconds that sent him past New Zealander Dan Slater, snatched the point score lead in the
Finn Gold Cup world championship on Port Phillip Bay today.

Going into the final race of the series, being sailed from Black Rock Yacht Club tomorrow �
the medal race confined to only the top ten sailors in the 82-boat fleet in this demanding
single-handed class, which scores double points � Ainslie leads with 35 points lost from
Slater, 36.

While the two of them extended their lead slightly today over the next two sailors Pieter
Jan Postma (Netherlands) and Jonas Christensen (Denmark), these two both still have winning
chances.

Postma is on 43 points; Christensen, 45. The remaining qualifiers for the medal race are:
Chris Cook (Canada), 62; Johan Tillander (Sweden), 72; Aimilios Papathanasiou (Greece), 80;
Ed Wright (Great Britain), 84; Peer Moberg (Norway), 86 and Ivan Kijakovic (Croatia), 89.

Australian Olympic team member Anthony Nossiter with a 22nd placing in today�s race, sailed
in a shifty breeze, dropped out of the top ten to 12th.

Officials delayed the start of race eight today more than two hours waiting for the light
breeze, which swung from southwest to southeast and back to south, to settle in the
southwest.

The breeze continued to shift as it built from seven knots at the start to more than 12
knots by the finish, with many of the favoured competitors, including Ainslie, caught out on
the left as the wind backed to the right.

Daniel Birgmark (Sweden) led around all marks to win from Guillaume Florent (France) with
Timothy Goodbody (Ireland) third.

With all of the above out of contention for the medal race, attention shifted to Ainslie�s
battle with Slater for the points lead. Slater rounded the first windward mark of the
two-round windward-leeward course in a handy fifth place, with Ainslie 14th.

Ainslie picked up five places on the run and then, rather stay in the queue of the top boats
heading right from the leeward mark gate, gamely tacked back through the pack of running
boats heading into the gate to sail into clear air on the left.

He gained another four places on the second beat to round fifth, one place behind Slater.
The pair battled down the last run, where unlimited pumping and boat rocking was allowed as
the wind freshened over 12 knots.

Overlapped a few metres short of the finish, Ainslie gybed onto that last wave with momentum
that carried him down its face to pass Slater and finish fourth, with Slater fifth.

Ainslie said: �It�s been such a tricky venue and it�s just been about trying to get back to
decent results and being as consistent as possible.�

He and Slater have been friends since they were teenagers when Ainslie won the Laser Radial
world championship at Takapuna, Auckland, in 1993 with Slater second. Slater later beat him
into second place at the ISAF Youth World Championship, on a tie-break of placings after
they finished on equal points.

�We became good friends,� said Ainslie. �I would go and train with him in Auckland during
their summer and he would come over and train with me in the European summer.

�We are still good friends.�

By Bob Ross