London Olympics 2012 - Rockin’ and rollin’ Laser style

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 31 Jul 2012 Forty-nine Lasers answered their first official starting guns in the 2012 Olympics, racing on the Weymouth Bay South course. Conditions steadily built over the course of both races, topping out somewhere around 15 or 16 knots, testing sailor’s medium-air-and-small-wave skills.

The usual suspects were at the top of the fleet. Australian Tom Slingsby, the current (and five-time, total) Laser World Champion and the gold-medal favorite, saw a dramatic turn of fortunes compared to his first day of racing in the 2008 Games in Qingdao, China. Guatemalan Juan Ignacion Maegli Aguero took the first bullet fired in the Laser Class, followed 27 seconds later by Slingsby; France’s Jean Baptiste Bernaz completed the top three. Great Britain’s Paul 'Goody' Goodison—who took Gold in the 2008 Games—finished in tenth place.

Race Two saw Slingsby’s fortunes improve, as the confident Australian took the bullet, beating out Brazil’s Bruno Fontes and Uruguay’s Alejandro Foglia Costa, who finished second and third, respectively. Goodison posted a 23, dropping him down to 17th, overall, while Slingsby’s performance slingshot him to the pole position after Day One. 'A bit different to my start four years ago,' reported a happy Slingsby. 'I am really happy—I got away well and a great day.'

As for the conditions, the super-fast Australian was more than prepared. 'I have done five regattas here in similar conditions,' said Slingsby. 'I knew that my speed would be fine and I [thought] I knew what the wind was going to do a bit and I knew what the tide was doing so I knew there weren’t too many crazy variables out there. I knew if I started well and got in my own rhythm I would be fine and I had two good races using that technique.'

Interestingly, today marked a complete flip-flop from the 2008 Games, which proved to be golden for the Brit and disastrous for the man from Down Under. Four years later, it appears that this will be Slingsby’s Olympiad, at least based on Day One’s performance. When queried in the mixed-media zone (where sailors can talk to the media once their boats have been pulled out of the water) afterwards, Slingsby couldn’t remember ever not winning a regatta after posting a strong results on Day One. Oddly, Goodison was 'unavailable' to comment in the mixed zone.

For his part, Slingsby was sympathetic to his fellow competitor’s first-day woes. 'I was next to him in the first race and I see him there and I am always going to push pretty hard. I think I am always going 100% but maybe every now and then you [put out] that little one or two percent if you have got someone you really want to beat next to you. Goody is like everyone else. [He] had a tough day today but he generally has tough first days and he bounces back really well. He will be there and I have just to keep in my low scores, but I’m sure I will see him come the medal race.'

The Laser Class returns to the racecourse tomorrow, with their medal race taking place next Monday (August 6), so stay tuned for more, as it becomes known.

Laser - Men - Overall Results

 

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race											Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	MR	Total	Net
1	AUS	Tom Slingsby	2	1										3	3
2	GUA	Juan Ignacio Maegli Aguero	1	10										11	11
3	CRO	Tonci Stipanovic	5	6										11	11
4	CYP	Pavlos Kontides	9	4										13	13
5	SWE	Rasmus Myrgren	11	5										16	16
6	KOR	Jeemin Ha	8	9										17	17
7	URU	Alejandro Foglia	15	3										18	18
8	BRA	Bruno Fontes	17	2										19	19
9	NZL	Andrew Murdoch	12	8										20	20
10	FRA	Jean Baptiste Bernaz	3	21										24	24
11	EST	Karl-Martin Rammo	7	18										25	25
12	AUT	Andreas Geritzer	6	20										26	26
13	GER	Simon Grotelueschen	14	12										26	26
14	ARG	Julio Alsogaray	20	7										27	27
15	SIN	Colin Cheng	4	25										29	29
16	GRE	Evangelos Chimonas	13 DPI	19										32	32
17	GBR	Paul Goodison	10	23										33	33
18	CAN	David Wright	18	15										33	33
19	POL	Kacper Zieminski	22	13										35	35
20	NED	Rutger van Schaardenburg	33	11										44	44
21	BEL	Wannes Van Laer	19	26										45	45
22	POR	Gustavo Lima	21	24										45	45
23	NOR	Kristian Ruth	32	14										46	46
24	ISV	Cy Thompson	24	22										46	46
25	CHI	Matias Del Solar	16	32										48	48
26	ESP	Javier Hernandez	34	17										51	51
27	DEN	Thorbjoern Schierup	36	16										52	52
28	SLO	Karlo Hmeljak	23	30										53	53
29	FIN	Mattias Lindfors	25	28										53	53
30	CZE	Viktor Teply	29	27										56	56
31	MNE	Milivoj Dukic	26	33										59	59
32	HUN	Zsombor Berecz	30	34										64	64
33	CHN	jian shi	27	39										66	66
34	ITA	Michele Regolo	31	35										66	66
35	RUS	Igor Lisovenko	28	40										68	68
36	COL	Andrey Quintero	40	31										71	71
37	TUR	Mustafa Cakir	43	29										72	72
38	LTU	Rokas Milevicius	37	37										74	74
39	USA	Rob Crane	35	42										77	77
40	TUN	Youssef Akrout	41	36										77	77
41	MEX	Ricardo Montemayor	39	41										80	80
42	IRL	James Espey	38	44										82	82
43	UKR	Valeriy KUDRYASHOV	48	38										86	86
44	MAS	Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy	42	47										89	89
45	TRI	Andrew Lewis	46	43										89	89
46	MON	Damien desprat	44	45										89	89
47	VEN	Jose Miguel Ruiz	45	46										91	91
48	THA	Keerati Bualong	47	48										95	95
49	KGZ	Ilia Ignatev	49	49										98	98

 

Legend
( ) - Excluded Score	DPI - Discretionary penalty imposed
BFD - Black flag, disqualification under rule 30.3	DSQ - Disqualification
DGM - Disqualification under rule 69.1(b)(2); not excludable	OCS - On the course side of the starting line
DNC - Did not start; did not come to starting area	RAF - Retired after finishing
DNE - Disqualification (other than DGM) not excludable under rule 89.3(b)	RDG - Redress given
DNF - Did not finish	SCP - Took a scoring penalty under rule 44.3
DNS - Did not start (other than DNC and OCS)	ZFP - 20% penalty under rule 30.2

Updated: Monday 30 July 2012, 20:05:38 GMT