British Olympic squad pick up five medals at Dutch regatta

The British Olympic squad picked up another five medals, this time at the Dutch regatta in Medemblik which forms part of the world series and is one of the top four in Europe.

Nic Asher and Eliot Willis had wrapped the gold in the 470 dinghy with a day to spare and this was followed by medals from both the windsurfers, in the women’s match racing, and in the paralympic division on the final day.

Nick Dempsey took silver and Bryony Shaw bronze in the windsurfers while the trio of Lucy Macgregor, Nicky Muller and Ally Martin achieved a notable silver in the match racing. Helena Lucas took bronze in the 2.4mR.

A strong northerly signalled an early end to the opening Extreme Sailing Series regatta for 40-foot catamarans in Sete, on the Golfe du Lion Mediterranean coast of France with the leader from day one, Yann Guichard, proving unstoppable.

The master, Loick Peyron, took second ahead of his young rival Paul Campbell-James in the pair of Oman Sail boats and Britain’s Mike Golding put in a best of fourth for Ecover, ahead of Franck Cammas in Groupama.

In La Maddalena, a small island off the north-east of Sardinia, the Mistral was blowing much more strongly and only one race was possible. Racing was also cancelled for Tuesday in the face of a predicted 50 knots, leaving time for the new chief executive office of Britain’s Team Origin, the Australian Grant Simmer, to make contact with skipper Ben Ainslie and the crew. He takes over from the Kiwi, Mike Sanderson.