Olympic Preview - Single-Handed Dinghy Open - Laser

by ISAF on 5 Aug 2004 Numbering 42 athletes, the Single-handed Dinghy Open event in Athens is being sailed in the Laser. This is the one event at the Olympic Sailing Competition where the equipment is supplied by ATHOC.

One of the largest fleets in the Olympic Sailing Competition, in some ways it is the most difficult in which to predict the outcome.

22 of the athletes competing have sailed at an Olympic Games before and six have sailed in the class each Olympics since it was selected as Olympic equipment for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Simple in its entirety, the class by design limits the amount of technical development that can be achieved and with every boat supplied by the ATHOC, competition is strictly limited to the on-water ability of each individual athlete.

With two Olympic medals already under his belt, as well as a record breaking seven World Championship victories, Brazil’s Robert Scheidt is going to be hard to miss on the water of the Saronic Gulf.

With the distinctive Brazilian flag on his sail, one thing can be guaranteed: Scheidt will be close to the front.

Few who saw it will forget one of the most defining moments of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Final race, all to play for between Ben Ainslie (GBR) and Scheidt in a battle that had spilled over from the 1996 Olympic Games. On that first encounter in Savannah, it was Scheidt that took victory, but in Sydney the roles were reversed as Ainslie levelled the score at one gold medal each.

Although Ainslie has moved on to the Finn class for the 2004 Olympic Games, Scheidt will certainly be trying to lay the ghosts of Sydney to rest in an attempt to pick up his second Gold medal in the event.

The challengers are lining up to beat him however. Scheidt has, over the last two years, been constantly pushed. Beaten into second place at the ISAF World Championships in Cadiz in 2003 by Portuguese Olympic representative Gustavo LIMA, Scheidt fought back in this year’s Championship to regain his title.

However, the Olympic Challenge could come from a number of camps.

Australia’s Michael Blackburn has finished third in the last two World Championships and already has an Olympic medal to his name, a bronze in 2000. He will be looking to go a couple better in Athens and has shown skill with the Athens conditions in winning the Saronikus Gulf Regatta in 2003.

Blackburn has been constantly mixing it with the best in the World and is currently ranked second in the ISAF World Sailing Rankings, but that Olympic Gold medal has continued to elude his grasp and he is focussed on changing that situation over the coming few weeks.

Staying with southern hemisphere sailors, another strong medal contender is South Africa’s Gareth Blankenburg. Winner of the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships in the class when they were held in Cape Town in 1998, this is a sailor who has worked hard to climb the rankings and now sits fifth in the World. He found his best form in recent times with a third place at the 2004 ISAF Grade1 SPA Regatta in the Netherlands, which followed an earlier lacklustre performance at the 2004 Laser World Championship in Bitez, Turkey.

He has showed the world he has the ability to pick himself up and perform, and it’s that kind of mental strength he’ll need in the tough Athens conditions.

Ranked third in the ISAF World Sailing Rankings, Great Britain’s Paul Goodison has had a rollercoaster couple of years. Self-admittedly suffering exhaustion during 2003, he took some time off and came back stronger than ever with back to back victories at Sail Melbourne and the Rolex Miami OCR at the beginning of 2004 have suggested that the British athlete is returning to form and will be punching for the top when the time comes for the medals to be handed out.

Although there only four medals have been won previously by this group of Laser sailors (two of them by Scheidt), both Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 have proved that the fleet has the ability to produce some tight and exciting racing, and a few surprises along the way. There are no fewer than five athletes who have represented their nation at the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships, three of them Gold medallists, but it is the simplicity and logistical ease of the event that allows some of the best sailors from developing countries a shot at Olympic glory.

Alan Julie from the Seychelles is a strong contender on the Olympic Classes circuit. He is part funded by an Olympic Solidarity Scholarship and with a 12 place finish at the ISAF Grade 1 SPA Regatta counting amongst a string of other solid performances, he will be looking for at least a top ten position here in Athens.

As well as Julie, Malayasian sailor Kevin Lim has benefited from Olympic Solidarity funding.

Both sailors have competed at the last two Olympic Sailing Competitions, improving every stage of the way.

Another sailor who must be mentioned is current record holder for sailing single-handed round his home state of Bahrain. Sami Kooheji, who did the challenge for charitable causes will be swopping long distance racing for some crowded, competitive boat on boat action in the Saronic Gulf.

Within the fleet, there are several athletes who will be their nation's sole representative in the 2004 Olympic Sailing Competition. Sami Kooheji is one of those representatives and carries the nations hopes on his shoulders, Matias Del Solar from Chile, as well as Hafsteinn Giersson (ISL), Timothy Pitts (ISV), Giedrius Guzys (LTU), Kevin Lim (MAS) Mario Agulina (MLT), Augusto Nicolini (PER), Gareth Blanckenburg (RSA), Alan Julie and Alejandro Foglia (URU).

Boat allocation for the Lasers took place today at the Agios Kosmas Sailing Centre in Athens and, after the practice race on 14 August, racing begins the following day. Olympic Champions will be crowned at their medal ceremony on Sunday 22 August.