Laser

29 September - Olympic Regatta

Although Ben Ainslie had led the Laser fleet from day one, he always knew that he would have to sail out of his skin to win the gold medal today in the final races of the regatta.
Robert Scheidt from Brazil was carrying a 21st position from race 7, and would be able to discard this if he had better positions in todays races. After the penultimate race Ben dropped to 2nd overall after a 5th to the Brazilians 2nd place, but Ben knew what had to be done.
The final race showdown saw Ben sail the Brazilian down the fleet with the pair at one stage virtually last on the racecourse. Robert Scheidt recovered to only 22nd place, and Ben finished 37th. Both sailors had to use these results as discards, and on the count up Ben won by 1 point. However the results were only provisional as Robert lodged a protest, and other protests on boats finishing above the Brazilian could be enough to raise him the place or two he needed to claim gold.

Finally at 10.30am this morning the Brazilians protest was dismissed and Ben Ainslie declared the Gold Medal winner in the Laser fleet, a fantastic second gold of the day for Team GBR in the sailing.

21 September - Olympic Regatta

The Olympic Regatta is developing much as expected, with Ben Ainslie and Robert Scheidt fighting it out for top place. The Brazilian leads by 1 point after 4 races, but both Ben & Robert have a 23rd place to count at present, along with 2 wins each. Impossible to call this event, although few would bet against these 2 finishing in Gold & Silver positions.

March 2000

Robert Scheidt won the last world championship before the Sydney Olympics by a comfortable margin. Ben Ainslie struggled for much of the week (only by his high standards) but pulled through by winning the last race to 3rd overall, and thus clinched selection for Team GBR at the 2000 Olympics.
The event also saw an excellent result of 6th overall for Paul Goodison. Paul achieved 6 top 3 race results and was leading Ainslie mid regatta.

1 BRA 16 Robert Scheidt 30,5
2 AUS 8 Michael Blackburn 53,0
3 GBR 58 Ben Ainslie 64,0
4 SWE 127 Karl Suneson 73,0
5 NED 97 Serge Kats 74,0
6 GBR 61 Paul Goodison 80,0

January 2000

Ben Ainslie is awarded the BT Yachtsman of the Year and the WS Atkins Inshore Yachtsman of the Year
A fitting reward for his 1999 domination of the Laser class across the world, lets all hope he hasn't peaked too soon for the Sydney Olympics.

September 1999

Ben Ainslie continues to dominate the International Laser events of 1999 by winning the Pre-Olympic Regatta in Sydney.
This was not an easy victory for Ben, but he showed great skill in rising 20 places to win the final race, and with it climb fron 2nd to 1st place overall.

June 1999

Ben Ainslie wins 1999 Spa regatta in the final race.

SPA Regatta 1999
Position Name Country

1st Ben Ainslie GBR

2nd Robert Scheidt BRA

3rd Roope Suomalainen FIN

13th Andrew Simpson GBR

29th Edward Wright GBR

64th Mark Barron GBR

100th Ian Clingan GBR

102nd James Date GBR

117th Peter Walker GBR

January 1999

Ben Ainslie wins his first World Laser Championship.

October 1998 - Pre Pre Olympics

Ben Ainslie comes second to 1996 Gold Medal winner Robert Scheidt who won with a race to spare.

Pre Pre Olympic Results
R.Scheidt BRA 23pts

B.Ainslie GBR 28pts

M.Blackburn AUS 42pts