| Editorial: Ups and Downs at the Paralympics |
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Actually Day 4 has just completed in the 2008 Paralympics, we will have full reports tomorrow. However just scanning the results, there have been a few changes in the leaderboards on the three classes. In the 2.4mR Singlehanded class, Paul Tingley (CAN) has reasserted himself with a second and fourth placing to move back onto the top of the points table and now sits five point clear of John Ruf (USA) with three races left in the regatta. In fact Ruf will need to keep looking over his shoulder, as one point behind are two competitors, Heiko Kroger (GER) and Jens Andersen (DEN), with another two competitors locked up a further three points adrift in the singlehanded keelboat class. Ruf made it hard for himself today getting off to poor first mark placings today - in the first of the two races he was not able to recover from being second to last around the top mark to finish 10th after having been 6th on the water at one stage. In the second race of the day Ruf almost repeated historyt, but this time recovered well to finish third after being 12th around the first mark.
In the Skud 18 USA's Nick Scandone and Mureen Mckinnon-Tucker blitzed the fleet leading around every mark in both races - probably the most emphatic performance of both the Olympic and Paralympic Regattas. This crew have now won five of the eight races sailed and have placed in the top three in every race sailed. They now have a nine and ten point lead over McRoberts and Louttit (CAN) and Fitzgibbon and Cox (AUS). The Sonar three man keelboat was a war of attrition as three races were sailed today - getting them one up on schedule. For the French crew the upshot of the day was some very mediocre (by their standards) performances, returning a 10,5,8 scorecard. Theirs was a reduced lead - down to just three points from the Australian crew. Conditions were light to moderate with breezes of 6-8kts being recorded from 150-160 degrees (onshore breeze). In this issue we have covered the first few day's racing and all the trials and tribulations associated with this type of competition, there's some great stories in some of the blogs and commentaries by the teams that we have republished in this newsletter. Don't forget to check out the PredictWind wind prognosis for the remainder of the Paralympic regatta, which is featured below.
We welcome any submission and images from fans, teams and anyone in Qingdao. Please forward these to nzeditor@sail-world.com Our thanks to those on the ground and water at Qingdao who have made this issue possible, depending on material available we will be publishing each through the Paralympics. Daily reports will be posted on www.sail-world.com Good Sailing! Richard Gladwell Sail-World Olympic Editor
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