Editorial- Double Gold for Britain

by . on 17 Aug 2008 [Sorry, this content could not be displayed]Welcome to Sail-World.Com's Olympic newsletter for Day 8 of the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta.

Today should have seen the first two Medal Races in the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta. The fickle breezes off Qingdao ensured that it wasn't.

This morning we received the following forecast from Jon Bilger of www.predictwind.com!PredictWind: 'The stronger winds predicted for today stay further offshore and so another light forecast. Both models show Northerly winds of 10knots but dying out by start time to less than 5 knots. By late afternoon an Easterly breeze builds to 10knots, but possibly to late for racing.'

And that is precisely what did happen.

In spite of the fickle winds on the westernmost courses (nearest the Olympic marina), racing did take place on the outer courses.

The Brit-Pack were well pumped this morning expecting to finish the day with two Gold medals. However today's Medal races in the Finn and Yngling did not eventuate, due to fickle winds off Qingdao on Course A.

In the Finn, a race did get underway. USA's Zach Railey, second place overall, believed that he was over the startline and returned (incorrectly) to restart. His rival Ben Ainslie pounced on the error and established a tight cover on the American, sailing him down the fleet into last place with Ainslie content to pad around the course in ninth.

However the Qingdao breeze, such as it was, did not come to the party and crumped out completely forcing officials to abandon the race, and all other racing on Cource Alpha for the day.

While Ainslie is widely tipped to take the Gold Medal tomorrow (Medal Race or not), the Womens Yngling is a very close run thing with Sarah Ayton and friends, just one point ahead of the second placed Dutch crew led by Mandy Mulder

In theory, a number of crews could take the Bronze medal, and the Yngling will be the first class under the Medal Race system to actually have its medals determined in the final round.

The British sailing thunder was stolen by their sporting nemesis Australia today. They did that in front of their vocal Australian supporters and their very pretty Australian Government Sports Minister, good timing for improved funding for London 2012.

Australia effectively won the first Gold Medal of the 2008 Sailing Olympics, when Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page finished the Fleet series with a 22 point margin over the second placed competitor, meaning that they have won the regatta, and the Gold Medal without needing to points from the final Medal Race.

The Australian media pack asked the five times world champions, 'How does it feel winning the first Gold Medal for Australia and beating the Brits? 'It does not get any better than that does it laughed Malcolm Page.

Australia is assured of a second Gold Medal this time in the Womens 470 class, with Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson holding an 18point advantage going into the medal race.

The only scenario where the second placed crew of Marcelien de Koning and Lobke Berkout (NED) can overtake the Australian crew is is the Dutch won and the Australian's were last. That would tie the points which are broken in favour of the crew who performs best in the Medal race.

With the racing in various states of advancement in all classes, one thing the regatta has proven is that to succeed, you have to get at least two good days racing behind you to win medals. No-one has really comeback from being seriously down the mine after the second day. No-one is putting together long strings of winning performances. All are being conservative and consistent and just waiting for their competitors to fall over.

It's a regatta that is lost rather than won.

Jo Aleh (NZL) currently leading the Laser Radial fleet, summed it up saying 'On a scale of 1 to 10, with ten being the greatest, this venue's luck is about an 8.'

Good Sailing!

Richard Gladwell
Sail-World Olympic Editor