Update: Day Seven in Qingdao sees NZ Star, RS:X Men and Laser Radial in 4th overall

by SailRaceWin

After the first race in the Star class today, Hamish Pepper (aka Pepsi) and Carl Williams (aka Tiny) were in fourth, behind class masters Loof and Ekstrom (Sweden), Pickel and Borkowski (Germany) and Domingos and Santos (Portugal), and just ahead of 2008 Star World Champions, Kusznierewicz and Zycki (Poland). Pepper and Williams improved from 7th at the first mark to finish 4th in the one race that was held, whereas the 2008 World Champions went from 2nd to 5th during the race.

Jo Aleh (Laser Radial) finished second in the one race for the class today. If she is able to maintain the top placing (fourth or better) consistency that she has shown after the first race, when the discard kicks in after another race, Aleh may find herself leading the fleet in gold medal position.

In the RS:X Men, Tom Ashley currently lies 4th overall, while Britain's Athens bronze medallist, Nick Dempsey, made a charge to take today's race and move into 3rd slot overall, after five races with one discard now in effect. Zubari (Israel) and Chan (Hong Kong) are in first and second places overall in class.

In the Women's RS:X, Barbara Kendall finished today's race in second place, giving her sixth overall after five races and one discard. China's Jian Yin continues to lead the fleet, having placed no lower than third in any race to date; a remarkable achievement at this level of sailing!

In the Laser class, Andrew Murdoch is in 15th overall, after placing 20th in today's race. Meanwhile, Carl Evans and Peter Burling finished 22nd today and are currently 13th overall in the Men's 470.

Light breezes meant that the organisers were not able to get in make-up races in classes that were down on the number of races held. The Finns and Ynglings had their last race before the medal race on Saturday, missing two races from the total. Britain's Athens Gold medallists in both classes have done enough to ensure that they take home at least silver (Ainslie) and at least bronze (Ayton, Webb and Wilson) in both classes.

Unfortunately the curtailing of racing means that Dan Slater's improvement in form throughout the regatta (he finished 6th today) leaves him in 12th place overall in the Finns - outside the top ten needed to compete in the double point-scoring medal race tomorrow.

There will be a full report on the day's racing from Jodie Bakewell-White in the next posting (to come, above).

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