Top: Paul Goodison wins Gold for Britain in the Laser class.
Bottom: Anna Tunnicliffe wins Gold for the USA in the Laser Radials.
Images copyright protected by Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image
SailRaceWin is grateful to Juerg Kaufmann and Go4Image for exclusive provision of images of the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta.
by Jodie Bakewell-White
Tuesday saw the conclusion of the Laser and Laser Radial classes, race ten and the end of the opening series for the windsurfers, and no racing for the Star class.
New Zealand’s Standings Summary
3rd - Tom Ashley, Men’s RS:X (after 10 races)
6th - Barbara Kendall, Women’s RS:X (after 10 races)
7th - Hamish Pepper & Carl Williams, Star (after 7 races)
Andrew Murdoch wins the Laser medal race in Qingdao. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image
Final Results
5th - Andrew Murdoch, Laser
7th - Jo Aleh, Laser Radial
11th - Carl Evans & Peter Burling, Men’s 470
12th - Dan Slater, Finn
The stage is set for an almighty battle for the men’s windsurfing medals at the 2008 Olympic Games with Kiwi Tom Ashley right in the mix. Just one point separates the top three in the men’s RS:X class - France’s Julian Bontemps, Great Britain’s Nick Dempsey and New Zealand’s Tom Ashley going into their medal race set to be sailed tomorrow off Qingdao.
Andrew Murdoch has finished 5th overall in the Laser class which wrapped up today the gold medal secured by Great Britain’s Paul Goodison, adding the third Olympic sailing gold for his nation at this Games. Olympic debutante Murdoch won today’s Laser medal race in front of a spectator packed break wall which lifted him up into the top five finishers in the 40 strong fleet.
Jo Aleh has finished 7th overall in the Laser Radial class after sailing their medal race today on course A soon after the Lasers. Aleh’s medal race today was defined when she had to return to the start line fearing she was over early, and never managed to get back in the race, crossing the line in 9th place.
Barbara Kendall moved from 7th overall up to 6th place on the women’s RS:X leader board after race ten sailed today, and while the five time Olympian has booked a spot in the medal race her chances of adding a fourth Olympic medal to her collection of three has slipped away. The points gap for her to now catch up with the leaders is too great to get to the podium tomorrow.
Despite race eight getting started and more than half way through, the lack of wind on course area E saw that race abandoned, and no further racing for the Star class today.
MEN’S RS:X
The top ten to sail the medal race were decided today when race ten was sailed for the Men’s RS:X fleet. Things have closed up at the top of the standings and Tom Ashley’s three point leading margin after race nine has disappeared after he finished towards the back of the fleet today in very light conditions on course area B.
Ashley started well at the pin end forcing the others to tack away however after choosing to stay on the left the Kiwi suffered dramatically when a 30 degree wind shift hit the course.
The Kiwi discards his result from today, while those close on his tail in the standings both managed a decent finish in the race sailed today. Julien Bontemps of France now has the overall lead on 45 points while Nick Dempsey GBR and Ashley are both on 46 points, so it all comes down to tomorrow's double-points medal race.
None of Bontemps, Ashley or Dempsey are far enough ahead of the fleet on points to be assured of a medal just yet. Also in with a shot at a podium finish is early competition leader Shahar Zubari of Israel. Zubari posted a 4th place in today’s race and is nine points back from Dempsey and Ashley, so a top medal race for him, combined with a poor performance for one of the leading trio could see him climb up.
Further back Ricardo Santos on 65 points has 5th place ahead of the deciding race tomorrow which leaves him an extreme outside chance to close the gap to the podium, although it’s near on impossible.
Tom Ashley comments:
“Tough day today!
“Very light, VERY shifty offshore breeze for the last fleet race of the Olympics.
“I had a really great start at the pin end of the line, and was planning to go left. Unfortunately (!) my start was so good that I made all my rivals (FRA, GBR and ISR) tack off towards the right and I succeeded in getting to the left, at which point the wind went 40 degrees to the right and I ended up deep.
“In those conditions, and being that far behind, there was no way that I would be able to finish in the top seven and make the race count (I was discarding an 8th until today) so I backed off and cruised the rest of the race to save energy for tomorrow's medal race.
“So, the overall situation is very tight now, with three of us separated by a single point at the front of the fleet. Julien Bontemps of France is leading, followed by Nick Dempsey (GBR) and myself one point back. Shahar Zubari of Israel is another eight points back, and fifth place is nineteen points behind.
“With the medal race counting double, this means that the medals will be fought out between the four of us tomorrow. It's all on! It'll be a great way to finish a very toughly fought regatta.”
The Men’s and Women’s RS:X races will be sailed tomorrow with a scheduled start time of 1pm local time.
Men’s RS:X (provisional)
Top five standings going into the medal race
1st FRA Julien Bontemps - 45 points
2nd GBR Nick Dempsey - 46 points
3rd NZL Tom Ashley - 46 points
4th ISR Shahar Zubari - 54 points
5th BRA Ricardo Santos - 65 points
WOMEN’S RS:X
The women’s RS:X fleet rounded out their ten race series today with Barbara Kendall finishing 21st in the race. Today’s race becomes her discard and she manages to leap frog Klepacka of Poland into 6th place.
Despite advancing up the standings Kendall appears to be out of range of the podium with a 22 point gap up to the 3rd placed Shaw of GBR. Alessandra Sensini today relinquished the overall lead to Jian Yin of China, who won today’s race, a master in the extreme light conditions.
Women’s RS:X
Top six standings going into the medal race
1st CHN Jian Yin - 33 points
2nd ITA Alessandra Sensini - 38 points
3rd GBR Bryony Shaw - 41 points
4th AUS Jessica Crisp - 46 points
5th ESP Marina Alabau - 46 points
6th NZL Barbara Kendall - 63 points
STAR
Light winds out on course area E where the Star class race caused delays, and eventually abandonment of all racing for the day. The 16 boat fleet has only sailed seven races so far and have only tomorrow remaining in the schedule to conclude the planned ten race series before the medal race on Thursday.
If wind doesn’t appear tomorrow the series may be shortened for the Star class, though if time and breeze allow they will go for three races tomorrow.
Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams are lying 7th overall in the fleet at this stage with a five point gap up to third placed sailors Rohart and Rambeau of France. Despite the close points on the board the talent pool in this, the oldest Olympic sailing class, is phenomenal and the kiwi boys have got a challenge on their hands to finish strongly.
See Carl Williams' blog for his comments on the aborted racing.
Star (provisional) top seven after 7 races
1st SWE Fredrik Loof & Anders Ekstrom - 23 points
2nd GBR Iain Percy & Andrew Simpson - 26 points
3rd FRA Xavier Rohart & Pascal Rambeau - 32 points
4th POL Mateusz Kusznierewicz & Dominik Zycki - 33 points
5th GER Marc Pickel & Ingo Borkowski - 36 points
6th POR Afonso Domingos & Bernardo Santos - 37 points
7th NZL Hamish Pepper & Carl Williams - 38 points
LASER
Murdoch at the Olympics in Qingdao. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image
Andrew Murdoch performed best at the very start and the very end of the regatta, rounding out his first Olympic Games with a win in the medal race sailed today after also winning race nine yesterday afternoon.
In the extreme light winds Murdoch took the early lead in today’s medal race which got underway just after one o’clock off Qingdao. While GBR’s Paul Goodison was intent on doing what was required to secure gold – simply beat Rasmus Myrgren of Sweden to the finish line – Murdoch led the fleet around the course with only Vasilij Zbogar of Slovenia in touch.
Goodison won gold, Zbogar lifted to take silver for Slovenia, and Diego Romero of Italy benefitted from the misfortune of Myrgren to take bronze.
A few average results during the middle of the regatta was Murdoch’s undoing, and given his standing in 12th place going into the penultimate day of racing he did well to recover from there and score a top five placing.
Laser top five final results
GOLD GBR Paul Goodison
SILVER SLO Vasilij Zbogar
BRONZE ITA Diego Romero
4th POR Gustavo Lima
5th NZL Andrew Murdoch
LASER RADIAL
Start of the Laser Radial medal race in Qingdao. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image
The Laser Radial medal deciding race followed the Laser race of course A.
Jo Aleh’s hopes of a podium finish were dashed yesterday when she slipped out of contention after races 7, 8 & 9 were sailed. The 22 year old Aucklander was 9th in the medal race today, which was won by Gintare Volungeviciute of Lithuania.
Aleh’s final result for the 2008 Olympic Games is 7th place. The USA’s Anna Tunnicliffe claimed the gold medal, silver went Gintare Volungeviciute LTU and bronze to China’s Lijia Xu.
Click here for Jo Aleh's own view of the medal race and goal for 2012.
Laser Radial top seven final results
GOLD USA Anna Tunnicliffe
SILVER LTU Gintare Volungeviciute
BRONZE CHN Lijia Xu
4th AUS Sarah Blanck
5th FRA Sarah Steyaert
6th SUI Nathalie Brugger
7th NZL Jo Aleh
ISAF Olympic website results Clicking on a race gives more information on weather, course and mark rounding positions.
Whats happening Wednesday for the Kiwi team?
To be confirmed, but here's the likely schedule...
Tom Ashley – Men’s RS:X
Current position: 3rd (after 10 races)
Medal Race
Start time: 1300 hours
Course area A
Barbara Kendall – Women’s RS:X
Current position: 7th (after 10 races)
1 race – Races 10
Start time: 1100 hours
Course area A
Hamish Pepper & Carl Williams – Star
Current position: 7th (after 7 races)
3 races – Races 8, 9 & 10
Start time: 1100
Course area E
Yachting New Zealand
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