London Olympics 2012 - Clark and Lihan finish regatta

by Dana Paxton on 11 Aug 2012

Amanda Clark and Sarah Lihan (USA) competing in the Women’s Two Person Dinghy (470) event in The London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition. onEdition http://www.onEdition.com

London Olympics 2012 sailing competition August 10.

Amanda Clark (Shelter Island, N.Y.) and Sarah Lihan (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) finished the Women's Two Person Dinghy medal race in 10th position, which gave them an overall finish of ninth place in the London 2012 Olympic Games regatta.

Winds were light and shifty on Weymouth Bay.

'Our medal race was unfortunately not as breezy as the men had,' explained Lihan. 'We had a lot of pressure coming in and out. When the pressure was in, the left was the favored side of the course, and when it was out the right was favored. We didn’t line ourselves up with those trends and our scores reflect that.'

Throughout the week of sailing, the pair collected eight top eight scores in a fleet of 20 countries. For Clark, this is her second Olympic campaign and for Lihan, her first.

'Today when we saw the Brits with their double flares and the Kiwis upside down, and everyone celebrating, Amanda and I were pretty down to be honest,' said Lihan. I looked down and saw the Olympic rings on our pinnies and thought ‘I represented the United States of America at the Olympics.’ I’m really disappointed with how we performed. I really wish we were able to get up on that podium and watch our flag raise, but we’re here and we did it.'

Clark and Lihan teamed up in 2011 and quickly saw their performance increase, collecting medals at world cup events.

'What motivated me to keep going in 2011 is that I love sailing,' said Clark. 'I really enjoy being part of the Olympic experience. I am so happy to be part of this and on this side of it. It’s been a great experience and definitely glad I didn’t stop in 2011.'

The pair advanced from the 10-race series, which took place Aug 3-8. Finishing in the top three were the teams from New Zealand, Great Britain and The Netherlands.

Results: here

Final standings as of August 10:
12th, Finn (Men’s One Person Dinghy Heavy), Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) 10-15-13-17-2-8-11-8-12-19 (completed Aug 3)
29th, Laser, Rob Crane (Darien, Conn.) 35-42-30-28-16-32-19-8-33-(44)
20th, Women’s RS:X Windsurfing, Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md.) 22-18-18-18-20-22-23-27[OCS]-16-16 (completed Aug. 5)
22nd, RS:X Windsurfing, Bob Willis (Chicago, Ill.) 7-10-11-25-BFD-28-24-33-11-30 (completed Aug. 5)
7th, Star (Men’s Keelboat), Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih (both Miami, Fla.) 5-14-5-3-8-9-5-10-3-11-6
8th, Laser Radial, Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) 8-5-12-17-4-9-[21]-20-9-8-6 (12 points)
15th, 49er, Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y.) and Trevor Moore (Naples, Fla./N. Pomfret, Vt.) 6-10-16-1-7-13-[20]-18-2-17-5-20-17-8-1714th, Men’s 470, Stuart McNay (Boston, Mass.) and Graham Biehl (San Diego, Calif.) 17-22-10-3-23-24-6-18-7-4
9th, Women’s 470, Amanda Clark (Shelter Island, N.Y.) and Sarah Lihan (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) 7-3-5-7-19-20-3-8-17-9-10 (20 points)
Women’s Match Racing, Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), Molly Vandemoer (Stanford, Calif.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) – fifth place overall

**BFD is black flag penalty

NBCOlympics.com Broadcasting sailing live every day of competition. Archived video here

US Sailing website
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/100857

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