Australia’s Women’s Skiff team of Olivia Price and Evie Haseldine showed off their light-wind skills on a scorching day two of the Paris Olympic regatta in Marseille, where they finished third in the final race of the day to move up to fifth overall.
With the mercury tipping over 30 degrees, the Aussies passed the first top mark in seventh before working their way through the field beautifully in the fickle winds to post their best score of the regatta.
“It was really tricky out there to actually see what was going to happen because there was a lot of chop disturbing the water and disturbing the wind,” said skipper Price. “So once the wind died in the second race it was really tricky to figure out which one was coming next.”
An Olympic silver medallist at London 2012, Price understands the value of banking good results at this stage of the regatta.
“We knew it was going to be quite an open field going into this event, especially with the light forecast and that was our mentality. We just need to keep chipping away and drag back as many points as possible.”
Grae Morris finally got his Olympic campaign underway in the Men’s Windsurfing with a thirteenth in the only race of the day but was left frustrated after the second race was abandoned with the Olympic debutant in fourth place.
“It was good slalom wind, but unfortunately in the second race there was a fifty-meter radius around the last mark so we all just fell off the foils,” said Morris.
Morris will now look to recover after two long, hot days out on the water waiting for the wind to fill in.
“I’m keen to get in a pool and ice bath as it was a taxing day. It helped having (Coach) Arthur (Brett) out there with his umbrella, and the Performance Support team have put together a lot of ideas to keep us cool, wet ice towels and a cold esky so I am in pretty good shape.”
Fellow debutants Jim Colley and Shaun Connor had a better day in the Men’s Skiff today, posting two more top-ten finishes to go with the one they finished with yesterday.
“In those conditions it’s still highly technical, so we need to make sure the boat is up to speed and harnessing the most amount of power we can get,” noted Connor after racing.
Australian Olympic Team Leader Iain Brambell was pleased with what he saw from the team today.
“Our Aussie Skiff sailors displayed their tenacity as they patiently sat ashore in hot conditions utilising the team’s finely tuned cooling strategies awaiting the wind to come in. Once on water they displayed their fighting spirit throughout each of their three respective races. All athletes are looking forward to tomorrow’s racing as the winds are expected to moderately increase with greater reliability.”
The same three classes will be back on the water tomorrow, with athletes expecting 8-16 knots of seabreeze and another day where shade, umbrellas and ice baths will be in order.
Paris 2024 Olympic Regatta standings
Women’s Skiff (20 entries)
1st: Sarah Steyaert & Charline Picon (FRA) 2, 2, 2, (8), 2, 2 – 10 pts
2nd: Odile Van Aanholt & Annette Duetz (NED) 5, 1, 1, (10), 8, 5 – 20 points
3rd: Jana Germani & Giorgia Bertuzzi (ITA) (12), 9, 9, 1, 3, 6 – 28 pts
5th: Olivia Price & Evie Haseldine (AUS) 6, 8, (16), 7, 11, 3 – 35 pts
Men’s Windsurfer (24 entries)
1st: Nicolas Goyard (FRA) 1 – 1 point
2nd: Nicolo Renna (ITA) 2 – 2 pts
3rd: Johan Bornemann Soe (DEN) 3 – 3 pts
13th: Grae Morris (AUS) 13 – 13 pts
Men’s Skiff (20 entries)
1st: Isaac Kale McHardie & William McKenzie (NZL) 1, 3, (8), 8, 1, 1 – 14 pts
2nd: Robert Dickson & Sean Waddilove (IRL) (9), 4, 1, 4, 2, 8 – 19 pts
3rd: Diego Botin Le Chever & Florian Trittel Paul (ESP) (16), 6, 4, 5, 11, 2 – 28 pts
16th: Jim Colley & Shaun Connor (AUS) (19), 17, 10, 14, 10, 10 – 61 pts
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