OCTOBER 2004 - Finn

Olympic Regatta 2004 – Athens, Greece
Ben Ainslie has carved himself a reputation in recent years of being able to
make dramatic comebacks in races. However in Athens he was set the task
of making his most awesome comeback yet. A 9th and a DSQ on day one left
him in a lowly 19th overall, and the chances of a third Olympic medal were a
dim prospect. But the comeback kid focussed and refocussed and went on to
win three of the next four races to drag himself back into contention. The rest,
as they say is history. Reports by ISAF and Gus Miller
Day One
Race one – Emilios leads all the way
Following a general recall in the first start that
saw a bunch of around five or six boats over
the line at the starboard end, the second start
was all clear and Emilios Papathanasiou
came off the port end with Ali Enver Adakan
ahead of the bunch. Playing the shifts well
the two rounded clear ahead of the chasing
pack, and were never challenged.
Mateusz Kusznierewicz started his 2004
quest well, finishing third after rounding third
at the first mark. Ben Ainslie suffered from
his known first race nervousness and after a
bad start, rounded the first top mark in 14
place, eventually picking up to finish ninth.
Race two – 1996 gold medalist leads
The light, six knot southerly gradually crept
left as the sea breeze established and by the
time the second race started, it was blowing
from the south-east at about 11 knots. Ben
and Mateusz took a risk and set off on an
epic and close battle for first and second.
The Pole got to the first mark a matter of
seconds ahead of Ben, who got through on
the downwind leg to round ahead at mark
two. Of the chasing pack it was Karlo Kuret
who came through to finish behind Ben. Jonas
Hoegh-Christensen had an amazing
comeback. Rounding the first mark in 12th
place he climbed boat by boat to eventually
finish fifth.
It proved not to be a great day for Ben
however. After a port starboard incident with
the French sailor, who subsequently lodged
a protest, Ben was disqualified from race two,
leaving him in 19th place overall.
Day two
Race three – Ben bites back
The wind was 10 knots from the north-west
at the start. Dean Barker started at the pin,
tacked onto port and took the lead from Kevin
Hall. Ben pulled back from 20th at the first
mark to fifth on the run, and the race was
abandoned after the fleet compacts at the
leeward mark. The restart was in 13 knots
from NNE, but this race was also abandoned
at the first weather mark. The fleet was not
happy!
On the third restart, the wind was 13 knots
from north-east. David Burrows, Dean,
Michael Fellmann and Sebastien Godefroid
start well and led at the weather mark. Ben
was 16th but soon passed three boats. On
the run he passed 11 more boats to round
second behind David. On the next beat the
wind built to 20 knots and Sebastien passed
Ben. On the run both pass David and then
fought it out for the rest of the race to finish
with a big margin over the next boats. David
faded to 9th after capsizing on the run when
the wind gusted to 29 knots.
Race four - double win for Ben
With the wind now at 25 knots from NNE,
and at five o’clock, everyone was tired. David
started well and lead at the first mark with
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