Team GBR sailors Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield finished in fifth place overall and fourth Europeans at the 470 European Championship in France.

The championship has been plagued by lack of wind and during the week-long event only seven races have been completed in the men’s fleet and eight in the women’s, with no racing on the final day.

Sydney Olympic silver medallists Paul Foerster and Kevin Burnham of America took the overall championship win from Gildas Philippe and Nicolas Le Berre of France who won the European title. Lucas Zellmer and Felix Krabbe of Germany finishing third overall and second Europeans from Johan Molund and Martin Andersson of Sweden who won the European bronze medal. Fellow team GBR sailors Graham Vials and Bevis Field who have been sailing together just eight months finished seventh Europeans and ninth overall.

In the women’s fleet three crews were tied for first place, but the championship win went to Natalia Via Dufresne and Sandra Azon of Spain on count-back, who took gold from Vesna Dekleva and Klara Maucec of Slovenia with Therese Torgersson and Vendela Zachrisson of Sweden finishing third overall. Team GBR sailors Christina Bassadone and Katherine Hopson finished in sixteenth place overall.

Rogers summed up his week by saying, “Sailing is all about putting the right pieces together in the right place and at the right time. We managed this at the beginning of the week but towards the end of the regatta it got harder to do so and it reflected in our results. On the whole we are really pleased with fourth place, but no one likes coming fourth and we really want to get some top three’s from here on in.”

Vials said, “Considering that Bevis and I only started sailing together eight months ago it is great that we are on pace especially considering it has been such a tricky event. It is incredibly hard to keep focused when the racing is start-stop but I suppose it is a disadvantage to everyone and part of the game is to be able to adapt to the situations.”