Whose Star will shine in China?

What an awesome result for the Polish team Mateusz Kusnierewicz and Dominik Zycki winning the Star Worlds. But how relevant is beating a 104-boat fleet compared with the Olympic challenge of short course racing against a fleet of just 16? Iain Percy is hoping that the answer is “not very”. He and crew Bart Simpson (pictured mid-gybe by Fried Elliot) had a shocking week in Miami, albeit in a borrowed boat. They won one race, but the rest of the week was a catalogue of disaster – broken shroud, OCS, you name it.
“It’s just been one of those weeks where it’s all been decided with a throw of the dice – and we’ve thrown a lot of ones and not many sixes!” said Percy afterwards.
So where’s the silver lining for the Brits? Well, back in 2000 a certain Mateusz Kusnierewicz won the Finn Gold Cup just months before the Sydney Games. And the young Pole was the reigning Olympic Champion from Savannah four years previously. He was the man to beat. Meanwhile, still quite new to the fleet, Iain Percy had moments of brilliance at that Weymouth event, but ruined it with a clutch of OCSs and other unwanted letters on his score sheet. I can’t remember where he finished, but nor probably does he.
A few months later, who won the gold medal on the fluky waters of Sydney Harbour? Iain Percy, with Mateusz out of the medals. The Brit will take some comfort from that history lesson, and he drew a comparison with last week’s failed mission against the one that really matters in Qingdao. “I know it is easy to come up with excuses, but it has been one of those weeks where if it is going to happen it is going to happen to us, and with such big fleets at the Star Worlds, any mistake costs you dear. In that sense the racing here is really kind of irrelevant to the racing we’re going to be experiencing at the Games where it’s just 15 other boats, and it’s not so costly if you miss a windshift.”
Of course you have to cling to this type of thinking when things are against you, but there is some truth to it. Qingdao is a very different task to Miami. The one constant in the Star fleet, however, is the irrepressible ability of Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada to keep themselves in the chocoloates no matter what the challenge. The Brazilians took the bronze last week in Miami. In the past three Star Worlds, they have recorded results of 2,1,3. Torben Grael may not be in China to defend his Olympic title from Athens, but at the moment all the signs are that the gold medal is still most likely headed towards Brazil again.