One race was held in Qingdao today for both fleets of RS:X. Racing was postponed for several hours and the race committee was unable to follow through on the schedule created yesterday. Boats saw different breeze on each course and throughout their race(s). Sailors reported very shifty wind anywhere from 4 knots to 12 knots. For more on the conditions (and how the American team felt today on the racecourse), see US Sailing’s report by Derby Anderson.
In both RS:X fleets, today saw a few changes in the distribution of the fleet. For the women, Jian Yin from China maintains her lead. She is now ahead by 4 points. Jessica Crisp from Australia moved into second place with a bullet for today’s race. After one throwout, she’s 5 points ahead of Marina Alabau from Spain, who had a 5th today. After the throwout, many girls moved up in the rankings. Most noticeably, Jannicke Stalstrom from Norway jumped up to 7th place after throwing out her DSQ. Faustine Merret, the French Athens gold medalist, also had a DSQ thrown out and now sits in 10th place. Alessandra Sensini, the Italian powerhouse sailor, had a DSQ today for failing to keep clear after a collision with Marina Alabau, but stills maintains fourth overall as she excluded the DSQ score from her score. Our Polish sailor, Zofia Klepacka, moved up from 17th to 12th with a 4th place in today’s race. She’s 8 points behind Faustine. She definitely still can make up the points and get into the top 10, but her chances for medaling are now pretty much over. It seems like she’s just getting into that Qingdao groove. We’ll see more consistent results from her for the remainder of the regatta.
In the men’s fleet, Shahar Zubari had his worst race with a 17th place, but maintains his first position after the throwout. King Yin Chan (HKG) has had a really consistent regatta and maintains second. Nick Dempsey from Great Britain won the race and moved into third, while Tom Ashley from New Zealand dropped back into fourth. There weren’t as many changes in fleet distribution as in the women’s fleet, but a few sailors are moving up, such as Pont, who had his best race today and now sits in 20th. Ben Barger remains in 25th place with, in his words, a rather disappointing finish in 26th place.
The Polish team has updated their website with some great photo galleries. Check it out. The one titled “Trening + wyscigi” has water shots of the windsurfing racing and training.
Other links:
ISAF results
Over here in Raceboardland, the wind also didn’t pick up as much as expected. However, the committee got us on and off the water quickly and efficiently after two races in 4-8 knots. The day was overcast and threatening to rain, and it was cool with temperatures in the low to mid 60s. I’m finally getting the hang of my Bic hybrid, and am making it go upwind a little bit better. All of us are tired after yesterday’s conditions, and there was noticeably less pumping by the whole fleet! My races went smoothly and I didn’t make too many mistakes. I had one tough start, although I got off the line early I got rolled by a big longboard and slipped underneath some other competitors. However, I felt that I sailed some consistent upwind legs, and one great downwind in which I made up a few places. As soon as we all got off the water, it started to rain, and it hasn’t stopped since!
Check out the event photo galleries (scroll down) for more great shots of the raceboarders and the Bic Techno kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment