Jonas Hogh-Christensen, the man Ben Ainslie must beat on Sunday in order to secure his position as the most successful Olympic sailor in history, has already adopted the role of pantomime villain.
The ‘Great Dane’ as he was dubbed in the early part of the week, when he beat Ainslie six times in succession to establish a 10-point lead, became public enemy No 1 on Thursday after the Briton accused him of gamesmanship.
Ainslie alleged that Hogh-Christensen and Dutch sailor Pieter-Jan Postma had "ganged up"on him, forcing him to serve a penalty by claiming that he hit a mark. Hogh-Christensen denied the claim but the damage was already done.
Ainslie, “seriously p----- off”, was gunning for the Dane from the word go on Friday, and his match racing tactics in race 10 felt especially loaded even if they were the logical thing to do in the circumstances.
If Hogh-Christensen really was convinced Ainslie had hit the mark on Thursday, he can consider himself unfortunate. Until then, the big red-bearded Dane had played his cards perfectly, adopting a relaxed attitude in the mixed zone, modestly saying how happy he was to be leading a great sailor like Ainslie.
He admitted it might be nice to keep the Briton from breaking his compatriot, Paul Elvstrom’s record, as the most successful sailor in Olympic history, but he said it with a smile.
No comments:
Post a Comment