Rio 2016 - Day 2 brings more tumult for some, salvation for others

by Richard Gladwell and Mark Jardine on 10 Aug 2016 The course area may have changed, but Brit, Nick Dempsey's performance early on stayed the same. He picked up where he left off on Day 1 in Race 4 of the Men's RS:X class on the Escola Naval race area to record his third win in four races. Poland's Piotr Myszka finished second with Brazil's Ricardo Santos third.

Generally, unless you in the Finns, conditions were fresher than yesterday's light air poker game.

The cloud cover blew off early revealing Christ the Redeemer for the first time in this regatta. Maybe this phenomenon triggered the resurrection of of some of the pre-regatta favourites, after their Day 1 Disasters.

However skies were slightly overcast with still some influence on the wind strength. Pollution in the Guanabara Bay was again thankfully absent - a couple of leaves seen floating was the sum total for the day's garbage count.

A few fish were seen jumping along with seabirds - so the venue is not devoid of marine life. The marina was again clean. Water colour hadn't changed, but there don't seem to any tales of sailors being ill, and that affecting their performance.

In the Women's RS:X Race 4 Italy's Flavia Tartaglini took the win followed by Brazil's Patricia Freitas with the Netherland's Lilian De Geus third. Overall leader France's Charline Picon knocked in a solid fourth, Britain's Bryony Shaw was seventh and USA's Marion Lepert 13th.

Red-hot favourite in the Finn class is without doubt Giles Scott but not everything is going by the form-book in Rio. Racing on the Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain) course, described as the most unpredictable race area, a 17th in Race 1 is not the start he'll have been looking for. The race win went to Argentina's Facundo Olezza Bazan followed by Turkey's Alican Kaynar in second and Slovinia's Vasilij Zbogar third. Time to throw the form book into Guanabara Bay...?

After the race Scott was in a reflective mood saying that the majority of the sailors had a good and bad race, and no-one did particularly well.

'Not massively happy with the way today has gone', he added.

'The Sugar Loaf is about as tricky as it gets. There is scope for big gains and big loses. Managing those is fairly difficult.'



Scott put his improvement in the second race of the day down to 'coming off the start line better, I didn't get dictated to in the first half of the fist upwind, which allows me to get my head out of the boat, and make my own decisions instead of having those made for me. That was the big difference.'

'It was still an extremely difficult race and I was fortunate on the last run to have a little jump on the pack.'

'Incredibly tight racing' was the Scott's understatement of the day.

Scott said that Sugar Loaf course was always 'very up and down. Today was very normal for that wind direction with complex shifts of up to 40-50 degrees, which is pretty massive, and doesn't make things easy.'

'You certainly don't want to start an Olympic games with a 17th in the first race. Let's say I wasn't particularly happy when I finished. But unfortunately these things happening regattas, and it has happened to me over the past four years. there is certainly a lot to play for.'

USA's Caleb Paine knocked in a respectable seventh but Australia's Jake Lilley finished one place ahead of Giles Scott 16th and New Zealand's Josh Junior was a place behind in 18th.

'I got one near the back and a UFD - so it wasn't a good day for me,' said Josh Junior after the race. 'But there's four more days to go. There were a lot of good guys racing at the back of the fleet with me. I found my self a bit buried and never came back.'

'It is not the end of the world.'

The Finns were the first to sail on the Sugar Loaf course tucked in behind the soaring rock formation and racing about 100metres off the white sand beach.

'The wind has to come around the sides on the Sugar Loaf, and it is very shifty. If you get it wrong, you really get punished.'

'We might had had 10kts to start, dropping to 6kts at the end.'

Race 3 of the Women's Laser Radial regatta, racing on the Ponte course in up to 12 knots of breeze, saw Hungary's Maria Erdi win followed by Belgium's Evi van Acker and China's Lijia Xu bouncing back after her disqualification yesterday with a third. Ireland's Annalise Murphy finished fourth, USA's Paige Railey 10th, Britain's Alison Young 13th and Australia's Ashley Stoddart 17th.

In Race 3 of the Men's Laser class, Cypriot Pavlos Kontides took a convincing win from Australia's Tom Burton with Guatemala's Juan Ignacio Maegli third. New Zealand's Sam Meech finished fifth with Britain's Nick Thompson ninth and USA's Charlie Buckingham 10th. No Laser sailors have recorded three top 6 results - the predictions of a high scoring Laser regatta look to be accurate.

'I had great starts and went the right way most of the time - which was the big difference to yesterday,' Meech said after the second day's racing.

'Wind shifts were mostly in the 20 degree range. We had a big shift at the start of the second race, which flipped the advantage to the pin end.'

'I tried to get as far down the line as I could in the last minute, but there was a big group of boats down there, and I set up just to windward of them, and then I was in a reasonable position.'

Meech was one of the big movers on the points table after today's race and being able to drop his 19th from the first day of racing. World Champion, Tom Burton (AUS) also performed much better on the second day and also thanks to the discard is also handily placed.

'We knew this was going to be a tough regatta', said Meech.

'It's a big change in just 24 hours,' Meech reflected after the race. 'But it is only Day 2 in a long regatta. I can't get too excited about it yet. But hopefully I will be in the same position on the last day - then I will be really excited', he laughed.

One of the features of the racing in all classes has been the performance of the sailors form the developing countries, the so-called minnows of the fleets.

'In this last year everyone is a lot closer, the difference between the front and back of the fleet is minimal, now. That is something I have really noticed in the last year. It is a lot harder to get through the traffic if you are behind. When there is a stronger breeze, there maybe is a bit more disparity. But so far if you start badly or get on the wrong side of the first shift, it is a long way back.'

Italy's Flavia Tartaglini made it two wins from two today in Race 5 of the Women's RS:X followed by Russia's Stefania Elfutina, and the Netherland's Lilian De Geus third. Britain's Bryony Shaw finished 14th with USA's Marion Lepert 22nd.

London 2012 gold medallist Dorian Van Rysselberghe collected his second win in race 5 of the Men's RS:X regatta with Poland's Piotr Myszka second, France's Pierre Le Coq third and regatta leader Nick Dempsey (GBR) fourth.

Race 2 in the Finn class saw Slovenia's Vasilij Zbogar win followed by London 2012 Silver Medallist Jonas Hogh-Christensen from Denmark in second and Britain's Giles Scott third. USA's Caleb Paine finished 10th. There were UFD starting penalties for Jake Lilley (AUS), Josh Junior (NZL), Alejandro Foglia Costa (URU) & Zsombor Berecz (HUN) - that's an early DSQ in the results for all of them.

Race 4 in the Women's Radial class saw China's Lijia Xu win followed by Finland's Tuula Tenkanen and Denmark's Anne-Marie Rindom third. Ireland's Annalise Murphy knocked in a solid seventh but Canada's Brenda Bowskill was 20th, USA's Paige Railey 21st and Britain's Alison Young 26th.

In Race 4 of the Men's Laser class Argentina's Julio Alsogaray won with Norway's Kristian Ruth second and South Korea's Jeemin Ha third. New Zealand's Sam Meech was sixth, Canada's Lee Parkhill ninth, Australia's Tom Burton 10th, Britain's Nick Thompson 15th and USA's Charlie Buckingham 23rd.

The RS:X windsurfing classes finished off the day with race 6 of their regattas. China's Peina Chen won the final Women's race followed by Thailand's Siripon Kaewduang-Ngam and Israel's Maayan Davidovich. Britain's Bryony Shaw was 12th and USA's Marion Lepert 23rd. On the Men's course the Netherland's Dorian Van Rysselberghe won again with France's Pierre le Coq second and Poland's Piotr Myszka third. Nick Dempsey had his first bad race of the regatta in 14th.

So where does another topsy-turvy day put everyone overall? The answer is somewhat confused.
In the Men's Laser class Argentina's Julio Alsogaray is the clear leader counting a first, second & fourth, with Croatia's Tonci Stipanovic second, New Zealand's Sam Meech third and Australia's Tom Burton fourth. All the leaders have a big score as their discard which means than none of the top 15 are out of running.

London 2012 Gold Medallist Lijia Xu leads the Women's Laser Radial class but has a DSQ as her discard. Ireland's Annalise Murphy is in second followed closely by Denmark's Anne-Marie Rindom. USA's Paige Railey is in 10th, Britain's Alison Young 18th and Canada's Brenda Bowskill 19th.

Italy's Flavia Tartaglini has taken the lead after 6 races in the Women's RS:X fleet with yesterday's leader Charline Picon close behind. Britain's Bryony Shaw is in 10th after a 7,14,12 score line from today.

In the Men's RS:X Nick Dempsey is still in the lead but Dorian Van Rysselberghe is just a point behind and has a much better discard. Poland's Piotr Myszka rounds out the top three.

After the first two races in the Finn class, Slovenia's Vasilij Zbogar is the early leader with USA's Caleb Paine eighth, Britain's Giles Scott 10th, Canada's Tom Ramshaw 16th, Australia's Jake Lilley 19th and New Zealand's Josh Junior 21st.

Tomorrow stronger winds are forecast and racing will take place outside in the ocean on the Copacabana Beach course.

The Men's and Women's 470 will also be having their first racing of the regatta.