25 June 2009

Paul Goodison, the Be Number 1 sailor and Laser gold medallist at last year’s Beijing Olympics, sauntered to the most comfortable of victories yesterday in the Laser class in the sixth, and penultimate, round of the ISAF World Cup series in Kiel, Germany.

The 31-year-old won his opening five races and stayed in firm control thereafter in a regatta that was curtailed by light winds. In the medal race, Goodison led around every mark and took the gun ahead of Croatia’s Daniel Mihelic and Austria’s Andreas Geritzer.

“It probably looked easier than it was,” admitted Goodison. “It was a trying week because of the wind conditions, but the racing was fine when we got racing. I have been sailing well – I think rounding every windward mark first apart from on the first day – and in the medal race I got a good start, which put me in great shape.

It was Goodison’s third successive World Cup series triumph in only his third event back since claiming Olympic gold in China last August. It was also a result that served to lift him from eighth place to fourth in the overall World Cup standings, even though he opted to miss the first three rounds of competition.

Britain’s Nick Thompson, who finished fifth in Kiel, heads the field with 86 points, 14 ahead of Mihelic. The series finale takes place in Weymouth and Portland in September, on the same stretch of water that will be used for the 2012 Olympics


Meanwhile, world champions and Be Number 1 athletes Nic Asher and Elliot Willis gained a bronze medal in the 470 men’s event after finishing fourth in the medal race. It was a result that carried them up to sixth place in the overall World Cup table. With only one race remaining, they are unable to catch the American duo of Stuart McNay and William McBride, who are 26 points ahead of them. But the British pair are only eight points behind second place and just two points shy of the third-placed French crew.