Saxton and Groves seal European Championship gold<\/p>\n
Written by RYA | 04 October 2015<\/p>\n
Multihull medals as Nacra 17 duo are crowned European Champions in Barcelona<\/p>\n
Nicola Groves hailed a \u2018fantastic\u2019 victory with Ben Saxton at the Nacra 17 European Championships, which concluded in Barcelona yesterday (Saturday 3 October).<\/p>\n
Groves and helm Saxton negotiated a tricky six-regatta, beset by weather disruptions, to head into the final medal race at the top of the leaderboard, but effectively level-pegging with Australia\u2019s Darren Bundock and Nina Curtis in the chase for overall event gold.<\/p>\n
A short postponement to the final day\u2019s racing set the scene for a tense medal showdown, with a number of place changes keeping the British duo fighting until the end.\u00a0 A fifth place in the medal race to the Australian\u2019s sixth was enough to hand them the top spot of both the European and Open European podia.<\/p>\n
Denmark\u2019s Allan Norregaard-Annette Viborg completed the Open Europeans podium behind Bundock-Curtis and were the second European crew, with Italy\u2019s Vittorio Bissaro-Silvia Sicouri the third European crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a fantastic medal race and a really good battle with the Aussies.\u00a0 We\u2019re really chuffed with the way we closed out the race when it mattered, and we\u2019ve had a great week,\u201d Groves enthused.<\/p>\n
Saxton added: \u201cThe race today was fun \u2013 we had good breeze, Nic did a good job and Maurice Paardenkooper our coach did a great job of preparing us.\u00a0 We sailed OK to come fifth and that\u2019s made us European Champions, so we\u2019re really happy!\u201d<\/p>\n
Saxton and Groves joined forces in the mixed multihull event a year ago, with Groves having transitioned from the 49erFX.\u00a0 This represents their first major event victory together, adding to their silver medal at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working hard over the summer and in the build up to this event with our coach Maurice, and it\u2019s great to see that it\u2019s starting to pay off.\u00a0\u00a0 We had good speed in our new boat and showed level heads today in the medal race so we\u2019re happy with the progress we\u2019ve made together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The duo will take a short break before returning to training in Weymouth and Portland later this month ahead of further training blocks in Rio during the autumn and winter.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere at the European Championships, fellow British Sailing Team crews Tom Phipps-Nikki Boniface and Lucy Macgregor-Dave Evans concluded their events in 11th and 14th places respectively.<\/p>\n
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