| RIO DE JANEIRO BRAZIL-(14-2-2004) Just five months after the close of the 2003 Finn Gold Cup in Cadiz,
Spain, Finn sailors from across the world have gathered once again to
compete for one of sailing's most prestigeous trophies.
In the past, the Finn Gold Cup has been sailed in some very attractive
and exotic venues, but perhaps none quite match up to the awe and
splendour of Rio de Janeiro. It has been a long held dream of the Brazilian
Finn Class to host the Gold Cup here, after the success of the 1998
Gold Cup in Ilha Bela, some way to the north of Rio, and these are finally
being realised.
53 boats from 23 countries are in Rio for this carnival of Finn
sailing, just a week before the real Rio carnival gets underway. The lineup
includes 3 previous world champions and a host of would-be hopefuls
looking for a first win.
Since their arrival, the sailors have been out practising and have
sailed two preparation regattas. The Brazilian Championship, sailed from
28-31 January, wasthe first chance many of the sailors had to test the
waters here. Guillaume Florent (FRA) beat the one of the local favourites
Joao Signorini (BRA), as well as current world champion Ben Ainslie
(GBR).
Straight after this regatta, the South American Championships were also
sailed out of Rio de Janeiro with 47 sailors taking part. Marin Misura
(CRO) sailed an excellent regatta to win two races and beat Ainslie on
count back after the two ties on points. Rafael Trujillo, who was
second in last year's Gold Cup, finished 3rd.
The racing so far has been very testing with many sailors up and down
the results. If the preparation regattas are anything to go by then the
Gold Cup should be a very interesting regatta, and it is hard to pick a
clear favourite, although with a third and second in the two regattas
so far, most money would have to be on Ainslie to make it three in a
row.
Finn sailing has a special place in the hearts of the Brazilians, as it
was their very own Jorg Bruder who was the only Finn sailor ever to
score three successive wins at the Finn Gold Cup. Between 1970 and 1972
Bruder won two Gold Cup by the narrowest of margins and one comfortably,
after 6 times of previously finishing in the top 5. Fate decided he
would remain unbeaten as he was tragically killed in an air crash on the
way to France to defend his title in 1973.
If Ainslie has his way here over the coming week, it will be ironic
that not only will Bruder have to share his record with an Englishman who
acheived it on Bruder's home waters but that it was this same
Englishman who so famously beat another of Brazil's sailing heroes, Robert
Scheidt, in the last Laser class race of the Sydney Olympics.
In the preparation regattas over the past two weeks, several sailors
put in some good results. Andrew Simpson (GBR) won two races, David
Burrows (IRL) finished top 5 in both regattas, and a battle royale seems to
be developing between Brazil's Joao Signorini and Bruno Prada, who are
fighting to determine who will represent Brazil in the Olympic regatta
later this summer.
After some changable weather recently, today brought almost unbroken
sunshine and high temperatures, which will make for some testing racing.
The practive race was held this afternoon on the course outside the
harbour in mainly light and variable winds.
With the opening ceremony tonight, tomorrow sees the first races of the
2004 Finn Gold Cup.
Class website: www.finnclass.org
Event website: www.atividade.com.br/finn
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