Buckingham (USA) takes Laser Silver at Delta Lloyd Regatta

by Will Ricketson on 29 May 2017 The US Sailing Team's Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.) earned a silver medal in the men's one-person Laser event at the 2017 Delta Lloyd Regatta, a top-level Olympic-classes competition that concluded on Saturday in Medemblik, The Netherlands. Buckingham, a Rio 2016 U.S. Olympian, raced against a deep field of competitors in Medemblik including Rio 2016 Olympic silver medalist Tonci Stipanovic (Croatia, fifth overall) and London 2012 silver medalist Pavlos Kontides (Cyprus, ninth overall).

'My coach and I wanted to do a lot of regattas this year,' said Buckingham, who has a notably busy training and competition regimen in 2017. 'Delta Lloyd fit the schedule well, and it always has a strong entry list.'

Malcolm Page (Newport, R.I.), the Chief of U.S. Olympic Sailing, said he was pleased to see Buckingham's work ethic paying off against the world's best. 'Charlie has been training hard with a professional, committed program,' said the two-time Olympic champion. 'It takes time to work on each piece of your performance. It's great to see the hard work coming together.'

Prior to landing in The Netherlands, Buckingham logged a significant number of days training in Long Beach, California. Alamitos Bay Yacht Club has opened its doors to the US Sailing Team for a number of spring training camps involving multiple Olympic classes. In addition to offering excellent facilities, ABYC's chief asset remains a famously reliable weather pattern well-suited for training. US sailors in the Laser and other classes have been training together as often as possible to boost overall national performance.

'I've been preparing in Long Beach because it is the ideal place to train,' said Buckingham. 'You can get every wind strength and sea state in a day, plus it's close to home and always warm.'

When asked if he feels more advanced at this stage of his Tokyo 2020 Olympic campaign than at the same point leading up to Rio 2016, Buckingham said such comparisons aren't necessarily an accurate way to think about the progression of a four-year Olympic preparation cycle. 'There aren't too many differences (between this campaign and my last),' said Buckingham, a two-time College Sailor of the Year for Georgetown University. 'It's really just a continuation of the work I was doing leading up to Rio. My coach, Mark Littlejohn (Auckland, New Zealand), and I are always just looking to improve and move up the leaderboard.'

For more information visit event website.

Results: Laser Class, 2017 Delta Lloyd Regatta

1. GBR, Elliot HANSON, 44.0
2. USA, Charlie BUCKINGHAM, 50.0
3. AUS, Matthew WEARN, 58.0
4. AUS, Mitchell KENNEDY, 63.0
5. CRO, Tonci STIPANOVIC, 69.0
6. CRO, Filip JURISIC, 69.0
7. FRA, Jean Baptiste BERNAZ, 69.0
8. AUS, Finn ALEXANDER, 69.0
9. CYP, Pavlos KONTIDES, 72.0
10. IRL, Finn LYNCH, 76