Olympic Sailing Daily Wrap 18 August 2008

Adding three races in one day was always going to make some impressions on the overall standings at the Olympic Sailing Regatta in Qingdao, China. With sufficient breeze, albeit fading through the day, the Laser, Radial and Star and fleets all sailed three races today and things have changed on the leader boards.

The top ten to sail in the medal race has now been decided for the Laser and Radial classes and these will be sailed tomorrow.

New Zealand’s Standings Summary

1st - Tom Ashley, Men’s RS:X (after 9 races)
6th - Andrew Murdoch, Laser (after 9 races)
7th - Jo Aleh, Laser Radial (after 9 races)
7th - Barbara Kendall, Women’s RS:X (after 9 races)
7th - Hamish Pepper & Carl Williams, Star (after 7 races)

12th Dan Slater, Finn (Final result)
11th - Carl Evans & Peter Burling, Men’s 470 (Final result)

The RS:X fleets both added two races today, have now completed nine and will be back on the water for race ten tomorrow ahead of their medal races on Wednesday.

Tom Ashley continues to lead the Men’s RS:X class though Nick Dempsey of Great Britain has gained some ground on the kiwi after today’s two races. Ashley returned two more consistent races, finishing 6th and then 8th. Race ten was abandoned late in the afternoon due to a dying breeze and has been rescheduled for tomorrow. Ashley leads on 38 points with Dempsey close behind on 41, while Julien Bontemps of France is third with 42 points.

Barbara Kendall was 6th in race eight and then 13th in race nine today which sees her slip slightly to 7th overall. One race remains before the top ten medal race participants are decided in the Women’s RS:X class.

Jo Aleh sits in 7th place overall going into the Laser Radial medal race. After two 14th places and a 20th in today’s three races her medal chances have slipped away. With a 28 point gap between her and Lijia Xu who holds 3rd overall Aleh won’t be able to make up the ground to hit the podium with only the medal race to sail.

Over in the Laser class Andrew Murdoch had some work to do today to move from 12th place up into contention for the medal race. The 26 year old from Kerikeri, Northland has managed that with ease climbing his way back up to sit in 6th overall at the end of what was a nine race opening series for the Lasers. Murdoch was 5th in race seven, 17th in race eight and closed the day with a win in race nine.

After seven races for the Star class the points remain close. Starting the day with a convincing win in race five, Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams then went on to post a 12th and an 11th in races six and seven. They now sit in 7th place on the leader board, on equal points with Robert Scheidt of Brazil in 8th place.

MEN’S RS:X

While the intention was for three RS:X races today only two were possible. The fleets are required to return ashore after two consecutive races in order to recuperate. However in the dying breeze in Qingdao today this meant that by the time the windsurfers went back out for race ten the wind had evaporated.

Tom Ashley was 6th in his first race of the day, and then 8th. His previous poorest race had been a 7th place early on in the series, so race nine now becomes his discard and he has a points total of 38. His five point buffer over second place has dropped to three points, with GBR’s Nick Dempsey moving up and ousting Julien Bontemps of France for second place. The Frenchman has third and is just one point adrift of Dempsey.

With race ten rescheduled for tomorrow the 35 strong fleet will be back on the water on what was originally planned as a rest day. By tomorrow afternoon in Qingdao the overall standings ahead of the Men’s RS:X medal race will be decided.

Men’s RS:X medal race is planned for Wednesday 20th on course area A off Qingdao.

Men’s RS:X (provisional) top results after races

1st NZL Tom Ashley - 38 points
2nd GBR Nick Dempsey - 41 points
3rd FRA Julien Bontemps - 42 points
4th ISR Shahar Zubari - 51 points
5th BRA Ricardo Santos - 52 points

WOMEN’S RS:X

As with the men’s fleet the Women’s RS:X sailed two races today, one short of the planned three, leaving race ten to be sailed tomorrow before Wednesday’s medal race.

Barbara Kendall was 6th in race eight and then 13th in race nine, which becomes her discard score. Today’s results saw her slip from 5th overall back to 7th place in the overall standings. She has 50 points just one shy of Polish sailor Klepacka ahead of her in 5th place.

Reigning world champ, Alessandra Sensini has taken the lead today pushing local Chinese girl Jian Yin back into second place.

Women’s RS:X (provisional) top results after races

1st ITA Alessandra Sensini - 30 points
2nd CHN Jian Yin - 32 points
3rd ESP Marina Alabau - 37 points
4th GBR Bryony Shaw - 39 points
5th AUS Jessica Crisp - 41 points
6th POL Zofia Klepacka - 49 points
7th NZL Barbara Kendall - 50 points

STAR

Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams made a great start today winning their opening race of the day in flying form. Opening up a sizable gap on the fleet in the second beat, the pair was 43 seconds ahead going around mark three and romped home over a minute clear to take the win.

Races six and seven weren’t as fruitful for the kiwi pair who was 12th and then 11th in those races respectively. Mixed results for many Star crews today, Pepper and Williams included, meant that overall standings shuffled continuously. At the conclusion of the day the kiwis have 38 points and 7th place; Robert Scheidt also has 38 points in 8th place.

The points are still close ahead of Pepper and Williams and another three races are yet to be sailed before the top ten are decided, which means there may be more shuffling on the leader board.

Fredrick Loof of Sweden currently holds the lead. The Star medal race is Thursday 21st August.

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 RADIAL

Today didn’t go the way of New Zealand’s Jo Aleh on the Laser Radial course who slipped from 3rd overall to 7th place after races 7, 8 and 9 sailed today off Qingdao.

Aleh, competing at her first Olympic Games, will line up with the top ten tomorrow for the Laser Radial medal race, but the points difference that opened up today means that she is not in a position to make a challenge for the podium.

Anna Tunnicliffe of the USA will start the medal race as the favourite for the gold medal, with a seven point leading margin over Volungeviciute LTU in second place.

The Laser Radial Medal race is scheduled to start at 1pm tomorrow.

Laser Radial (provisional) top seven after 9 races

1st USA Anna Tunnicliffe - 33 points
2nd LTU Gintare Volungeviciute - 40 points
3rd CHN Lijia Xu - 44 points
4th AUS Sarah Blanck - 54 points
5th FRA Sarah Steyaert - 61 points
6th BEL Evi Van Acker - 71 points
7th NZL Jo Aleh - 72 points

LASER

Andrew Murdoch made the most gains today of all the New Zealanders still in action. Leaving the boat park this morning Murdoch was in 12th place and needed to lift his game and return some top results to make the medal race cut for tomorrow.

In race seven Murdoch stayed in the leading pack throughout the race and crossed the finish line in 5th place. He couldn’t repeat this in race eight, and rounded mark one mid fleet in 20th place, then managing to come back to cross in 17th.

In race nine the kiwi took the lead early on, and despite the group just behind in hot pursuit Murdoch held on to take his first race win of the Olympic regatta and further improve his overall position.

The Laser Medal race will be sailed tomorrow on course A.

Laser top five (provisional) after 6 races

1st GBR Paul Goodison - 45 points
2nd SWE Rasmus Myrgren - 63 points
3rd POR Gustavo Lima - 65 points
4th SLO Vasilij Zbogar - 67 points
5th ITA Diego Romero - 69 points
6th NZL Andrew Murdoch - 79 points

[ Olympic Results ]

Whats happening Tuesday for the kiwi team?

Andrew Murdoch – Laser
Current position: 6th (after 9 races)
Medal Race only
Start time: 1300 hours
Course area A

Jo Aleh – Laser Radial
Current position: 7th (after 9 races)
Medal Race only
Start time: 1300 hours
Course area A

Hamish Pepper & Carl Williams – Star
Current position: 7th (after 7 races)
2 races – Races 8 & 9
Start time: 1300
Course area E

Tom Ashley – Men’s RS:X
Current position: 1st (after 9 races)
1 race – Race 10
Start time: 1100 hours
Course area B

Barbara Kendall – Women’s RS:X
Current position: 7th (after 9 races)
1 race – Races 10
Start time: 1100 hours
Course area B