You’ve got to hand it to the 470 class. It’s not the fastest boat by modern standards, but it certainly delivers drama. Two new World Champions, but neither the Men’s or Women’s teams going to the Olympics. That speaks volumes about the depth of talent in the fleet.
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.”
The British team that will be going to the Games is Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield who had a lacklustre conclusion to the Worlds, a 9th place dropping them to 9th overall. Asher and Willis’s victory poses an interesting – but ultimately futile – question about who would be the better bet for a gold medal in Qingdao later this year. The reigning World Champions (in the foreground of Richard Langdon’s photo above), or the more experienced team (in the background) with an Olympic silver medal to their names. The fact is, 2007 was a better year for Rogers and Glanfield, and that is why they are going to their third Games. Asher and Willis will have to wait their turn for Weymouth 2012.
The same goes for Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving, who ended up dominating the Women’s Worlds, but won’t be in Qingdao this August. Maxwell said: “If there was ever a way to make me feel better about not being selected for the Olympics … this is it. I don’t know what the future holds but we’re going to savour today, that’s for sure. We’re going to campaign for 2012 but jobs, graduate school and marriages come before that.”
The Italian team Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol held on for 2nd overall, while Olympic Test Event champions Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson displaced the reigning World Champions, Marcelien de Koning and Lobke Berkhout, from the bronze medal.
By far the more dramatic conclusion was the outcome of the Men’s Worlds, with Asher and Willis sailing a blinder of a Medal Race to cross the line first and take the gold medal by just 0.9 points from the Portuguese Alvaro Marinho and Miguel Nunes. For the third year running, Israel’s Gideon Kliger and Udi Gal took the bronze medal.
Asher and Willis’ World Championship hopes had looked very distant a few day ago, when a collision with Australian pair Mathew Belcher and Nicholas Behrens saw Willis sidelined for 24 hours 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.
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 in Melbourne. 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 team mates 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.
Rogers, the 2004 Olympic silver medallist, 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.”
Posted in 470, Olympic Classes | Tags: 470 World Championships, Nic Asher, Erin Maxwell, Isabelle Kinsolving, Elliott Willis, Nick Rogers, Joe Glanfield
