Great Britain’s sailing team in crisis; two sailors leave ISAF World Championships – Boating News
The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) is currently holding its World Championships in Perth, Australia. One of the sailing team participating in the championship is Great Britain. The British team has been going through
a tough time in this year’s championships. The Olympic gold medallists, Iain Percy and his fellow sailor Ben Rhodes have been ruled out of the competition due to their injuries.
Sailing fans around the world got to know the shocking news but did not believe it at first.These are definitely rough times for Great Britain’s sailing team as two of their best sailors will be leaving the tournament. Iain Percy,
who won two gold medals in the Olympic sailing events in the past, will not be competing in the Star Class of the event. He has been experiencing back pain which made it difficult for him to take part in the event. The moment Percy announced his withdrawal
from the event, he started crying for he was in the hunt to win a gold medal in this year’s championship.
The sailing world was coping with Percy’s exit from the championship when the shocking news hit them. This time it was Ben Rhodes, who left the championship. Rhodes had to quit the championship due to a strain he was feeling in
his ribs. Rhodes is part of the 49er crew. With the exit of these two sailors from the 2011 ISAF World Championships, the Great Britain sailing team is left hanging on hope to finish the tournament on a high score.
For Great Britain, this year’s championships have been nothing but a nightmare for their sailor Ben Ainslie was also disqualified. Ainslie was prohibited from taking part in the tournament after he had a quarrel with the television
crew and ISAF expelled him from the championship. Andrew Simpson, a fellow sailor in the Great Britain team was gloomy when he was talking to the media regarding Percy’s withdrawal. He said, “Iain was in tears, crying, and really in a bad way. I haven’t ever
seen him that bad before. It’s not very nice when you see a grown man cry and he was in absolute agony.”
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