Olympics: Day Five of Racing

Carl Evans and Peter Burling in the Men's 470 Class. Image copyright 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

Light winds meant delays, some cancelled racing and tough conditions for the Kiwis in action at the Olympic sailing regatta today. The Men’s 470 sailed two races, while the lack of breeze dictated that the Finns, Radials and Lasers only managed one race apiece.

In the overall placings Tom Ashley stands as the best placed Kiwi lying third overall in the Men’s Windsurfer. Both Ashley and Kendall enjoyed a rest day today and were probably pleased to sit out what appears to be one of the more challenging days, conditions wise, of the regatta so far.

A highlight today was a second place for Jo Aleh in the Laser Radial which saw her climb up the standings from 11th place to 7th. However, with only three races in, there’s a long way to go for both Aleh and Murdoch, who lost his lead in the Lasers after a disappointing race today.

The Laser sailor is philosophical at the end of the day well aware that some other top contenders also came up against the roll of the dice that Qingdao’s light winds present. He now lies 13th overall, and along with Aleh in the Radials, will be back on the water tomorrow.

Evans and Burling sailed two races today, and now sit in 10th place in the Men’s 470, while Dan Slater is in 13th on the leader board after one race today for the Finns.

LASER RADIAL


Aleh at the Olympics. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image

The sea breeze took longer to satisfy officials on course area C where the Lasers were racing today on day two of their regatta. They only managed one race and have now completed three.

Jo Aleh was the best performer of the Kiwi team today trailing Great Britain’s Penny Clark around the course just a few second behind the Brit who had the lead for the entire race. Aleh came home in 2nd place which sees her take a climb up the leader board from 11th overall into 7th overall.

Click here for Jo Aleh's own view of the second day of Laser Radial racing at the 2008 Olympics in Qingdao.

Anna Tunnicliffe of the USA continues to lead the standings in the 28 strong Radial fleet showing consistency pays off. She was 6th in today’s race and leads with 15 points in total from Petronijevic in second seven points adrift.

The Radial fleet will be back on the water for more racing tomorrow.

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


Lasers in light winds at Qingdao. Andrew Murdoch is on the right in the picture. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image

Andrew Murdoch wasn’t able to repeat the form of his opening day yesterday and has slipped from the leading spot after a finishing towards the back of the fleet in race three sailed today. He now lies 13th overall in the standings - Diego Romero of Italy taking over the lead.

With just three races now on the board the Laser fleet has a long way to go. They’re back on the water tomorrow for another two races.

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


Carl Evans and Peter Burling are the youngest New Zealand sailors in Qingdao. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image

Race officials made one general recall in getting the Men’s 470 fleet underway in the first race of the day, and unfortunately the Kiwis found themselves one of four boats black flagged in the race start proper. This effectively put them out of the running in this race, the fifth in their series, an incident which the young pair will clock up to experience.

They proved their fighting spirit in their second race of the day - the 17 year olds were deep in the fleet up the first leg rounding mark one in 24th place. They went one to recover from there climbing up to a 10th place finish in the race which was sailed in a very light five to six knots of wind.

The fleet has now completed six races in their ten races series to decide who proceed s into the medal race. After today’s performance Evans and Burling are now lying in 10th place overall, but will be aiming to maintain consistent results after their hiccup in race five early this afternoon.

Reigning world champs and hot favourites in the class Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page of Australia retain their lead placing 3rd and 4th in today’s racing.

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

Just one race was possible on the Finn course today due to the marginal wind conditions. Dan Slater finished 13th and now lies 12th overall in the standings.

Ben Ainslie (GBR) has consolidated his lead over Zach Railey (USA) by finishing 2nd in today’s race. He extended his leading margin over Railey and is now six points clear.

If conditions allow the Finn fleet will be back on the water again tomorrow.

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)


In other standings:

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)

Yachting New Zealand

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