Beijing Olympian Tom Slingsby has won Bronze in the Laser class at the fourth round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in France.

The reigning World Champion headed into the medal race in second position, tied on points with the third placed Croatian sailor and just one ahead of his Cypriot competitor, with Javier Fernandez of Spain 13 points clear in first.

Slingsby overcame having to restart the race after believing he had jumped the start and then suffering gear breakage to cross the line seventh and finish third overall.

“It was a really small start line and in the last few seconds before the gun my nose popped over,” said Slingsby. “I decided to go back and start again and it was probably a good idea as I’m pretty sure I would have been called over.

“From then on I was behind the whole time, I caught right up and managed to overtake the boats I needed to but then my vang broke and I wasn’t able to adjust it on the second lap as the breeze picked up,” he said. “On the last run I had managed to pull them back and in the last 10 metres was alongside Stipanovic of Croatia, whoever got the last wave was going to get the Silver medal and he managed to get it.

“In the end the medal race was held in my conditions, up around 10 knots but unfortunately I didn’t have a great start and then suffered a broken vang,” said Slingsby.

Slingsby’s Bronze medal came at the end of a solid week where he won the first three races of the regatta and then finished in the top 10 in another three.

“Overall it was a light wind week and I’m always improving in the light air,” said Slingsby. “My speed was good enough to win and if not for a couple of races in the middle I believe I would have been further up the podium.”

The current ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year has now medaled at the last seven ISAF Sailing World Cup events he has competed at, including four Gold medals, as the series heads to Holland for round five.

“I’ve had two thirds and a second now to start off this year,” said Slingsby. “I’d love to get that first win of the year in soon, I’m never happy to finish second.”

Tom Slingsby is currently second in the ISAF Sailing World Cup overall Laser standings, tied on points with leader Nick Thompson of Great Britain.

Fellow Australians Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page finished sixth in the 470 men’s fleet.

The 2010 World Champions headed into the medal race in sixth position, knowing that they had plenty of work ahead of them in the shortened 10 boat race to bring home a medal.

The pair won the medal race but unfortunately were adjudged to have crossed the line early and were excluded from the race after the finish.

“We went out with the intention of winning the medal race and hoping all of the cards would fall for us to get up on to the podium,” said Belcher. “The start was really close and three boats went back to clear the start again and they were the three that we needed to finish ahead of. We thought we were close but made the decision to keep on going but unfortunately were over, that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

“It was a bit of a shame but we just pushed a bit too hard at the start, it was still good to get some more experience racing in a very competitive medal race,” he said.

Belcher and Page had a number of good results during the week, sitting third for much of the regatta and picking up a race win and five other top seven finishes along the way.

“Typically Malcolm and I do better in the finals series than what we do early in the regatta,” said Belcher. “Having said that the last two regattas have been the opposite and we can’t seem to get good scores in the finals so we’ve got a little to work on before the next round in Holland.”

After the opening four rounds of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Belcher and Page are currently second overall, just two points behind the leading crew, Pierre Leboucher and Vincent Garos of France.

“We’re happy with where we are at this stage,” said Belcher. “We’re getting use to racing against European competition again and are sailing much better than we were in Palma a couple of weeks back. We don’t have anything to prove at these events, we’re working on things in-house and are building towards the Olympic Test Event in August and the Perth 2011 World Championships in December.”

The ISAF Sailing World Cup now heads north to Holland for round five, to be held at the end of May.

Yachting Australia