After his America’s Cup exertions you could forgive Giles Scott a bit of ring rust on his return to Finn sailing, not that the 2011 world champion showed any of it on Thursday.
Scott has been taking a sabbatical from the Olympic heavyweight class to work with the Luna Rossa team ahead of this year’s Cup.
But the 25-year-old is competing this week in Palma at the Princess Sofia World Cup event and currently tops the standings after two wins from the three races on Thursday, much to his own surprise.
“The biggest thing that’s surprised me is that I’m still able to hike,” he said.
“I seem to be going alright but there’s a few bits of rust here and there that I’ve noticed – I suppose you can expect that after not having done much [Finn] sailing at all!
“Unlike other days, I was able to get off the startline which helped me a little bit!”
The British team sailors in the heavyweight Finn class had a solid day all round, with Scott and teammates Mark Andrews and Andrew Mills almost closing out a GBR clean sweep in the third race of the day, but the Netherlands’ Pieter Jan Postma spoiled the party.
He squeezed in to take third place ahead of Mills, and the Dutchman is now second in the overall standings behind Scott, with Mills currently poised in the bronze medal spot and Andrews in fourth.
Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre also picked up two race wins from three on Thursday to maintain their lead in the 470 women’s event at their first event together.
And world windsurfing silver medallist Bryony Shaw enjoyed her best day on the water so far, Shaw picked up two race wins and now tops the standings in the women’s RS:X fleet by eight points with two more days to go.
© Sportsbeat 2013