London Olympics 2012- Sailing Olympics Newsletter - Day 4

by . on 2 Aug 2012 Welcome to Sail-World.com's 2012 Olympic Newsletter for Day 4, August 1, 2012

At yesterday's Media Briefing, much was made of the front that would pass over the race area today bringing strong winds, rain and all manner of metrological pestilence.

It didn't arrive.

Worst case that we saw was a little rain, and a fresh breeze for part of the afternoon, and then it lightened off.

Conditions like this usually makes for big shifts, and that was the hand dealt to Ireland's Annalise Murphy, on the Laser Radial course, on the eastern side of Weymouth Bay.

Our media boat arrived at the top mark, cameras at the ready, expecting to see the 6ft 1' sailor at the head of the fleet once again - she has only missed leading at two marks in the four races sailed. But today she was back in van of the fleet – proving she is human after all. Annalise scored a 19th (her discard) and 8th place in the two races sailed, proving she is human.

She has an interesting scorecard, with today’s placings sitting uncomfortably alongside her four wins.

On the 49er course, the Australian pair of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen showed their class, being in the middle of the fleet on the first of three rounds, and working their way back to be second by race end.

They now enjoy a 20 point margin over their nearest rivals, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke.

Tomorrow sees racing get underway in the Mens 470 class, they had their practice race today, and the Womens will do likewise before launching into the points counting stuff the next day.

Combat resumes in the Finn and Star classes, after a rest day for both.

The key point of interest will be whether Ben Ainslie can claw his way back into Gold Medal contention. He has a 10 point gap to close, which to our eyes doesn’t seem insurmountable. He has four races to sail counting for normal points, and then the double counting Medal Race.

But tomorrow he needs to make inroads into the points deficit and can’t make the task harder than it has already become. Ainslie also has the issue of limited runway, but if he can get the margin down to just five points, with two days to go, one of the greatest of British sailing dreams will be realised.

The Medal race for the Finn class is on Sunday.

Iain Percy and Andrew ('Bart') Simpson look to have the Star Medal under control, but will be only too well aware of the need to maintain momentum.

In this edition of Sail-World’s Olympic newsletter we have all the background and reports on the day’s racing, along with some great images from some of the world’s top photographers.

We’ll all be back in action tomorrow – stay tuned to www.sail-world.com

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
Olympic Editor