Family Flash Quote 

Written by RYA  | 05 August 2012 The Nothe During Medal Race Day for Star and Finn

Reaction from the Families of today's Medal Winners

Roddy (Ben’s dad)

You’ve watched an awful lot of Ben’s races, was that the hardest one yet?

Without a doubt, the last four Olympics have been really really tough but this one was nail biting from the very last minute. My hands are still shaking. 

How hard has he worked for this?

He’s worked since he was 16 to get a Gold at the  Olympics and just gone on and on and on. He’s been absolutely amazing really 

Ben is now an inspiration to a whole generation coming through, who was his inspiration growing up?

I would say Russell Coutts really, he was his hero when he was a youngster and now he started working for him its going to be a bit different!

Where Ben goes from here?

I certainly hope so (dominate the America’s cup) but he’s starting his own team in the AC45 and then we’ll just have to see what happens with that and he’s working for Oracle so we’ll just see how that goes. 


David and Gillian Ian Percy’s parents

David - We’re so pleased, disappointed right at the end but it was fabulous, I mean to get a silver, everyone in that audience was given their life for a silver in the Olympics and that’s fantastic. 

How did it feel when you were watching the finish

Gillian - Just really hard, I didn’t count anything because I just know what a hard fleet it is and when people asked me before ‘do you think he’ll get gold’ and I said you cant bet on anything in the Star Fleet but it was hard  

Atmosphere on the Nothe?

David - Initially it was electric people cheering and let’s be honest up to a 100 meters, he looked like he was in 4th place which would have secured it for him and then the puff of wind out on the left hand side you know sailing as it, it’s a bit  random and the guys came through so electric to start with but you know Silver medal, pretty amazing.

How do you think they are feeling?

Katrina (sister) - Pretty similar to the rest of us, they’ll be absolutely gutted that the gold went by in the last 10 mters or so but I think once they reflect on it, they know what the competitions like in the Star class, it’s full of Olympic medallists, World Champions and they’ve just got a silver medal so they’ve done really well and they’ll be pleased.

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