London Olympics 2012- Laser Radial - Medal Race winner will take all

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World team on 5 Aug 2012 London Olympics 2012 Sailing competition, Weymouth - Laser Radial class.

Sailing events are commonly decided over a week of racing but the Olympic Laser Radial medals at London 2012 will all come from just one race.

Its been a tight event and after 10 races, now just one single point separates Lijia (Lily) Xu of China, Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands, Annalise Murphy (Ireland) and Evi Van Acker (Belgium) going into the Laser Radial Medal Race.

The form sailor of the 2012 World Sailing Cup Xu hit the front in the final day of fleet racing winning Race 9 and backing it up with a second in Race 10 to move from fourth to first overall.

Xu, who was second at the 2008 Laser Radial Worlds and was the bronze medalist in the 2008 Olympics, has had a golden year. She won her third Gold medal of this season at the Semaine Olympique Francaise in Hyeres.

She won the 2011 Open Europe titles and then Sail Melbourne, the first World Cup regatta of the season. Since then, Xu won the Miami OCR, was injured there and did much more gym work than sailing leading up to her Hyeres win.

Today, Xu continued her steady progress at the key time in the Olympic regatta.

'I have been gaining momentum as the regatta progresses. I am good in a seaway so I just grabbed my opportunities today and made the most of it.

'I am looking forward to the Medal Race on the Nothe Course, I have spent lots of time training on that course area. 'With the spectators on the hill its quite exciting.

'I just follow my strategy to be more conservative on the start. You can't take any risks, just be consistent and conservative. '

But its anyone's game in the Medal Race and Bouwmeester, currently in second and Race 10 winner, has her eyes on the ultimate prize. 'I think there's only one medal that counts,' said Bouwmeester, 'and that's the same for everyone. It's going to be a bitch fight all the way to the end.'

Murphy had led early on in the Radial which has put her in strong contention for the medals, 'To be in a position where I can attack in a medal race, that's great,' said the Irish girl. 'I wanted to finish in the top 10 and I feel I've achieved so much more than that already.'

With such a small margin between the top four boats Murphy added that match racing is out of the question and it'll be a winner takes all scenario, 'It's just another race. We are not going to match race each other. We are all so close on points. I am hoping I can shake things up a bit on Monday.'

The Radial Medal Race takes place at 13:00 on the Nothe Course on Monday 6 August.

Top Five

1. Lijia Xu (CHN) - 33pts
2. Marit Bouwmeester (NED) - 33pts
3. Annalise Murphy (IRL) - 34pts
4. Evi Van Acker (BEL) - 34pts
5. Alison Young (GBR) - 52pts

Click here for full results