Olympic Sailing Day Six: No Wind in Qingdao

by Jodie Bakewell-White

No sailing took place at the Olympic Sailing venue today - wind was the missing ingredient. A sea fog hung over the race course for the entire day and competitors were kept ashore with the postponement flag flying.

Of the Kiwi team Dan Slater, Tom Ashley, Barbara Kendall, Jo Aleh and Andrew Murdoch had scheduled racing, today’s cancelations now putting them behind schedule. Organizers have announced that they will use tomorrow’s reserve day as an opportunity for the Finns, Lasers and Radials to catch up.

The Finns, who have sailed seven races so far, will sail their penultimate day of the regatta. For those not in the top ten at the conclusion of racing tomorrow, their Olympic Games comes to a close, while the top ten will go on to fight it out for the podium spots in the Finn medal race on Saturday.

New Zealander Dan Slater has some work ahead of him to make the cut for the medal race currently lying 12th overall in the fleet of 26. The Kiwi has a point score of 70, with an eight point margin to 10th place.

Forecasters predict that Qingdao will produce wind tomorrow, and potentially more than has been seen on any race day so far. Talk of around 15 knots lasting as long as three to four days will please some camps, but as always it’ll be a matter of wait and see what the day brings.

The only Kiwis yet to start racing are Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams in the Star class – their opening day is planned for tomorrow.

Here’s a look at the current standings...

Olympic Sailing Daily Wrap: 14th August 2008

Laser Radial
Top seven (provisional) results after three races

1st USA Anna Tunnicliffe - 15 points (4, 5, 6)
2nd CRO Mateja Petronijevic - 22 points (8, 9, 5)
3rd LTU Gintare Volungeviciute - 24 points (3, 13, 8)
4th AUS Sarah Blanck - 24 points (6, 11, 7)
5th GBR Penny Clark - 25 points (2, 22, 1)
6th BEL Evi Van Acker - 27 points (1, 10, 16)
7th NZL Jo Aleh - 28 points (22, 4, 2)

Laser
Top five (provisional) results after three races

1st ITA Diego Romero - 14 points (6, 3, 5)
2nd POR Gustavo Lima - 16 points (5, 8, 3)
3rd ARG Julio Alsogaray - 23 points (1, 12, 10)
4th RUS Igor Lisovenko - 29 points (11, 14, 4)
5th SWE Rasmus Myrgren - 31 points (7, 16, 8)

13th NZL Andrew Murdoch - 47 points (2, 5, 40)

Men’s 470
Provisional top five results after six races

1st AUS Nathan Wilmot & Malcolm Page 17 points (4, (7), 3, 3, 3, 4)
2nd FRA Nicolas Charbonnier & Olivier Bausset - 24 points (6, 3, 8, 1, 6, (18))
3rd GBR Nick Rogers & Joe Glanfield - 25 points ((19), 5, 1, 4, 9, 6)
4th ITA Gabrio Zandona & Andrea Trani - 30 points (10, 4, 7, 7, 2, (21))
5th POR Ãlvaro Marinho & Miguel Nunes - 34 points (2, 8, (15), 6, 11, 7)

10th NZL Carl Evans & Peter Burling - 53 points (7, 10, 14, 12, (30), 10)

Finn
Provisional top five results after seven races

1st GBR Ben Ainslie - 19 points ((10), 1, 4, 1, 1, 10, 2)
2nd USA Zach Railey - 25 points (2, 5, 2, 2, 7, (8), 7)
3rd FRA Guillaume Florent - 30 points (5, 8, (20), 3, 4, 6, 4)
4th SWE Daniel Birgmark - 39 points (14, (17), 1, 6, 12, 3, 3)
5th SLO Gasper Vincec - 42 points (9, 11, 6, 5, 3, (13), 8)

12th NZL Dan Slater - 70 points ((21), 19, 18, 4, 9, 7, 13)

Men’s RS:X
Provisional top five results after four races

1st ISR Shahar Zubari - 8 points (1, 3, 1, 3)
2nd HKG King Yin Chan - 16 points (5, 4, 2, 5)
3rd NZL Tom Ashley - 19 points (4, 7, 7, 1)
4th FRA Julien Bontemps - 23 points (13, 1, 5, 4)
5th GBR Nick Dempsey - 25 points (11, 9, 3, 2)

Women’s RS:X
Provisional top eight results after four races

1st CHN Jian Yin - 6 points (1, 1, 1, 3)
2nd ESP Marina Alabau - 15 points (3, 5, 5, 2)
3rd AUS Jessica Crisp - 17 points (2, 4, 3, 8)
4th ITA Alessandra Sensini - 18 points (6, 2, 9, 1)
5th GBR Bryony Shaw - 24 points (4, 3, 11, 6)
6th NZL Barbara Kendall - 35 points (12, 7, 12, 4)

ISAF Olympic website results Clicking on a race gives more information on weather, course and mark rounding positions.

What’s on tomorrow...

Dan Slater – Finn
Current position: 12th (after seven races)
2 races (possibly 3) – Races 8 & 9
Start time: 1300 hours
Comment: Tomorrow is Slater’s last chance to make the cut for the top ten medal race

Carl Evans & Peter Burling – Men’s 470
Current position: 10th (after six races)
2 races – Races 7 & 8
Comment: Coming off a rest day Evans and Burling race Friday and Saturday to round out the first ten races – following that if they’re in the top ten they’ll sail again on Monday 18th in the double-points medal race.

Hamish Pepper & Carl Williams – Star
Opening day
2 races – Races 1 & 2
Comment: Pepper and Williams kick off their Olympic regatta with a full week ahead. The Star medal race is scheduled for Thursday 21st.

Andrew Murdoch – Laser
Current position: 13th (after three races)
2 races (possibly 3) – Races 4 & 5
Comment: The Lasers will use the reserve day to make up for lost races today. Murdoch will be hunting the consistency he achieved on day one.

Jo Aleh – Laser Radial
Current position: 7th (after three races)
2 races (possibly 3) – Races 4 & 5 (& 6)
Comment: The Laser Radials will use the reserve day to make up for lost races today. Aleh has had two excellent races out of three, and will be aiming to repeat her form from yesterday.

Not racing tomorrow...

Tom Ashley – Men’s RS:X
Current position: 3rd (after four races)

Barbara Kendall – Women’s RS:X
Current position: 6th (after four races)

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