French Olympic Sailing Week - US Sailing Team into medal races

by Dana Paxton on 29 Apr 2011 French Olympic Sailing Week's fifth day of racing in the opening series has concluded in Hyeres, France.

US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics athletes advanced to the Olympic fleet racing medal race in Finn, Women’s 470 and Star classes, as well as the final match in Women’s Match Racing. Racing concludes tomorrow in the 2.4mR and Sonar fleets, which do not have a medal race.

Performance highlights on day five include:

• In Elliott 6m, Women’s Match Racing: Team Barkow – Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.), Alana O’Reilly (Charleston, S.C.) and Elizabeth Kratzig Burnham (Miami, Fla.) – defeated Groenveld 3-0 in the Semi-Finals to advance to the final match. She will face Lucy MacGregor (GBR) in the battle for gold.

• Team Tulloch – Genny Tulloch (Sausalito, Calif.), Alice Manard Leonard (New Orleans, La./East Haven, Conn.) and Jenn Chamberlin (Washington, D.C.) – defeated both opponents in the sail-off for fifth through eighth place, Ekaterina Skudina (RUS) followed by Anne-Claire Le Berre (FRA), and finishes the event in fifth overall.

• In the Star class, three USSTAG teams finished in the top 1- and advanced to the medal race: George Szabo (San Diego, Calif) and Mark Strube (Ponta Gorda, Fla.); Andrew Campbell (San Diego, Calif.) and Ian Coleman (Annapolis, Md.); and Rick Merriman (New York, N.Y.) and John von Schwartz (Annapolis, Md.).

• Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) turned in good finishes in the Finn class’s three races – 4-3-12 – and goes into the medal race in third overall.

• With finishes of 9-6, Erin Maxwell (Wilton, Conn.) and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar (New York, N.Y.) wrapped up the week in seventh overall to secure a berth in the Women’s 470 medal race.  Left: Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar and Erin Maxwell who advanced to the medal race in Women’s 470.

• The Sonar team of Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.) and Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Me.) go into tomorrow’s final race of the series in fourth, one point out of third overall.

Athletes quoted on day five:

Sally Barkow on advancing to the final match for gold and what to expect against MacGregor: 'It feels great. We had a couple of close races, it was tight downwind and boat handling and speed paid off. We won the starts and got what we wanted, but we were able to extend or hold our lead with boat speed.'

Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar on making it into the medal race in Women’s 470: 'We’re totally psyched. It’s always nice to finish up normal racing with best race. It’s sunny and we’re in Southern France, how can you complain? For us, we focus on always passing boats regardless of where you are on the racecourse.'



Val Smith on 49er racing: 'You know you just have to look up the course a little bit. We’re trying to avoid the corners as much as possible and as boats come back together have more opportunities to get into lanes. Not being the first or last person to tack is essential.' Photo left: Alex Bishop and Val Smith (behind sail) head out for 49er Silver fleet racing. Hear what Val and Alex have to say here.



French Olympic Sailing Week website