Saturday, 4 September 2010

1472 We are sailing and a film

Two Olympic sports have been completed with two further medal successes, one Gold and one Silver.

It is perhaps natural but never inevitable that there would be success on the water in sailing vessels. Britain is one main island and hundreds of others, with Northern Ireland part of the second largest land mass. Along the entire coast there have been ports and harbours throughout the ages and as our rivers have lost their industrial uses, the nation has turned to the small boat with yachts of all sizes and motor cruisers. The British love to go on rivers, and continue use the cross channel ferries as well as go on holiday cruises. The Royal Navy remains one of great sea forces of the world and although sea transport had changed radically with the use of container ships and fishing has been severely constrained so as to preserve European fish stocks, British young men and women still love to go to sea,
However before savouring the most successful sailing Olympics of all time from the British viewpoint it has to be remembered that perhaps only 100 individuals can expect to earn a living as competitive sailors and that some of out best well known sailors earn their livelihood abroad and that there are less than half this number sponsored to compete in the Olympics and world championships. The major problem remain that of sponsorship and that television does not like the sport because of the difficulties of showing events and the lack of interest among the general public which rightly regards sailing as still the province of the middle and upper classes. Having said that I have seen one article which suggests that over two million people own boats in Britain and that several million more will take to water in a vessel in some form each year.

This Olympics, the British team achieved their objective of four Gold Medals, added to which was one silver and one bronze, six in total and the best result ever for the British Team. Three young women, named three blondes in a boat after the famous book Three men in a boat ,won the Yingling class. Sarah Ayton aged 28 years from Ashford in Middlesex was awarded the MBE for her gold in the same class in Athens 2008. She now adds a second Gold. Pippa Wilson aged 22 from Southampton was the second member of the Crew and is a professional sailor. Sarah Webb is the oldest member of the winning team at 31 from Ashford in Middlesex and received the MBE as a member of the same crew as Sarah Ayton who joined the Royal Yachting Association's Youth Squad competing in the world youth championships in 1995 and 1996

Whereas little information is available about thee three blondes Ben Ainslie along with Chris Hoy of cycling is regarded a one of the best at his sport in the world, a view for once shared by sailors around the globe. Aged now 31 from Macclesfield in Cheshire, but brought up in Cornwall. he was taken into sailing by his parents at the age of 4 and commenced to compete in races at the age of tem. His father was a professional sailor who participated in the first Round the World Race in 1973. Ben has already had an extraordinary career and it will be interest to see if he now retires with the 2012 Olympics now in view. He has a long history of success gaining a Silver Medal at the 1996 games in Atlanta and has now won successive Gold Medals in 2000, 2004 and 2008. He is destined to be among those knighted for their achievements as a consequence of the success of the 2008 games.

The most exciting of finishers in any of the sports at the Games was that of Paul Martin Goodison, also a life long sailor now aged 30 years from Sheffield. He was in second position as the final medal race approached and after a week often becalmed waters which held up races, the race was fought out on choppy seas where previous experience and developed skill was required to find the best route between markers. The result was in doubt up to the finals seconds and such was the delight of the British team, including Ben Ainslie that Paul was lifted in triumph still in his boat out of the water.

Iain Percy aged 32 from Southampton has had mixed fortunes at the Olympic games having first won a Gold Medal in Sydney in 2000 but was only able to come sixth in 2004. He recovered from this disappointment to with bronze in the 2005 Championships and then Gold in the European of the same year, He was awarded and MBE for Sydney. This time he won Gold again with Andrew known as Bart Simpson, as crew. Bart also aged 32 from Chertsey but now living in Dorset.

Nick Rogers and Jonathan Joe Glanfield aged 29 recovered brilliantly from a disastrous start in their final Medal race to win Silver in the 470 class, having won the same Medal in the same class at Athens.

The sixth winning event produced Britain's first ever medal, a bronze in wind surfing which requires continuous upper body strength and stamina as well as sailing skills. Bryony Elizabeth Shaw is 25 years old and was born in Wandsworth. A feature of the sailing events is that unlike many athletes, sailors are expected to participate in a long series of races. Bryony who tends to be called Britney commenced windsurfing in the South of France in 1992 when 15 years of age, her father was an academic lecturer at the second University at Oxford and went to school near Headington, where I lived for over two years. She commenced to race competitively at a reservoir near Oxford and left university early in 2004 to concentrate on the sport, ranked 12th at the world championships in 2007 and 8th in 2008. She had a bad patch in the race series after starting well with 4th and 3rd positions and then finished 11th twice 6th and 5th. This was followed by a third, a first and a second which brought her to third overall in terms of the points awarded to that time. Although she came fourth in the final race this was sufficient to gain the bronze. She lives with a another wind surfer Greg King, near Weymouth where the sailing events are to be held in 2012.

Eighteen nations shared the 33 medals awarded in the sailing sport with only Australia winning more than one medal(2) and two nations winning three medals. Australia and France against the British six.
Having reported on cycling hopes of a ninth Gold medal were dashed when Shanaze Reade crashed in the final of the BMX bike race. The pressure and drive of this young woman to win after becoming world champion was such that she picked herself up in the settings races after her first crash where she took a lump from her elbow. She then got through to finish second overall which meant that she had the best position in the second of the two semi finals. Then horror of horrors she crashed again in the first race of the semis and appeared to be badly shaken as well as hurt. However she managed not only to finish second in the second race but to win the third which meant she had qualified in a good position for the final. She commenced the final in the lead but as they race commenced its final segment a French competitor who had won all three semi final runs as well as the setting races nipped passed her by changing direction. As they approach the final bend Shanaze instead of reconciling herself to second position and a silver medal, attempted the same manoeuvre and crashed after clipping the rear wheel of the French rider. On one hand I though this was the result of having attempted to ride to close to the rival and that she should have settled for a medal as part of the British team. However she was remarkably brave in continuing after two falls and the drive to win and be first and not to settle for second, may be uncritical, but is the kind of attitude which changes an also ran into a winner.

A similar level of frustration and disappointment was shown by the 17 year old Taekwondo competitor who had to fight four times in the course of the morning. He first become interested in the sport at the age of five after watching the Power Rangers cartoon. He joined a local club to the family home and then won the British Championship at the age of seven and then the world junior championship at 15. Selected to join the elite training squad based in Manchester his parents moved home and work to Manchester to help and support him. He won his first bout easily with the match stopped when the margin of points reached seven. The second contest was more difficult and then he was in the semi final he was narrowly beaten in the dying seconds after coming back three times for a point deficit. However it is inevitable that there will be an enquiry into what happened in the final when the judges repeatedly failed to confirm his scoring. including a hit to the head of the opponent which should have scored two points. To be charitable the judges may have been influenced by the crowd, and youth of the young man. In other circumstances one could make stronger allegations with considerable justification. It is hoped that the international association of this sport will conduct an enquiry and take appropriate action to ensure the judges do not officiate again.

Yesterday was a making up day as far as food was concerned with pasta parcels filled with spinach for lunch, a little salad and olive pasta for evening meal, some cereal and some toast during the day, strawberries, liquorice allsorts and lots of tea. The sore throat did not become the problem anticipated but when I coughed it was from the chest indicating that there was a problem.

I watched one poor film, the free with the Mail on Sunday DVD of Gene Hackman as a deputy district attorney attempting to persuade Anne Archer to leave her hideaway and return to testify against a bug time crime boos who she had witnessed present when his hitman murders the lawyer she met for the first time as a blind date arranged by her best friend who has been siphoning funds for his own use. Having witnesses the incident she takes to the hills she resists the plea of Hackman who unintentionally plays a dumb and irresponsible character who nearly gets himself as well as the woman played by Anne Archer killed several times in this would be thriller which has little credibility. It is worthwhile listing the mistakes which would have led him to being sacked if I had anything involvement. By luck he finds out there is a witness to someone who ahs evaded justice for years and where it is self evident given this is the USA the criminal will have workers in the justice system on the payroll. In such circumstances you do not disclose to anyone where you know the witness is in hiding and make sure that you are followed and then you ensure that you take without sufficient officers to ensure you can bring the witness if she agrees in safety. As she is located across the border in another country one presumably arranges local support as soon as the individual agrees to help and you ensure that you will have adequate communication throughout. The operation needs to be conducted as one would a military undertaking in its planning and its execution.

The thrill element rests on being in a position to escape the first attack and get on a train more by food fortune that planning. When I make a trip I always check out the various forms of public transport available beforehand and what happens if I or the public service breaks down in terms of drink, food, clothing break down. This is basic common sense even when travelling alone so the responsibility is greater when one is responsible or has dependents accompanying.

The second aspects which stretched the credulity is that while Hackman quickly becomes aware that two individuals have got on the train who are obvious villain he slowly works out there is third, although how this individual managed to get on the train remains an unanswered puzzle. There are two possible characters who could be the third villain and it is evident to everyone except Hackman who the individual is. His greater stupidity is not to assume that either or anyone else could be the third individual. Having realised that there were only two people who were aware of his mission he assume that one of these rather than the other is the guilty party whereas common sense dictates that you assume that either could be in on the conspiracy and got outside the system for assistance. He appears never to have heard of the FBI or the Canadian government. His next act of stupidity is to behave in such a way that he identifies to the criminals who the woman is when they would have no immediate way of knowing which of the other passengers she was By all means act as decoy but the best way in the circumstances would have been for her to act as any other passenger and sit with the other passengers who do not have a private compartment on the train. Amazingly the witness in question agrees to give evidence after surviving several near death experiences thus putting herself, her son and any other members of her extended family at grave risks for the rest of their lives from the crime boss and his friends. This is a film to avoid Narrow Margin unless of course you are too tired to do or watch anything else.

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