Rolex Miami OCR - Robertson takes lead in Sonar

by Event media / GJN on 30 Jan 2009
John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Alex Wang-Hansen have taken the lead in the Sonar event at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta with just the final day to go. The British team were in race winning form on the penultimate day of the Paralymic classes, winning all three of their races. They lead by six point from Paul Callahan, Roger Cleworth and Tom Brown of the USA.

Medal winners will be determined tomorrow in the three Paralympic Classes, Sonar, SKUD 18 and 2.4mR, as well as in the Women’s Match Racing event. The remaining nine Olympic classes sail their final series race to determine who gets to move on to Saturday’s medal race. In that race, which will count double for points, it will only be the top ten from each class competing.

Italy’s team of Giulia Conti, Alessandra Marenzi and Alessandra Angelini lead in the Women’s Match Racing going into tomorrow’s four-boat Semi Finals, which will then boil down to a Finals Match among two boats. In the Semis, Conti’s team will sail in a first-to-win-three match series against today’s fourth-place finishers, USA’s Genevieve Tulloch, Jennifer Morgan Glass and Jamie Haines.

While today’s second-place finishers, Great Britain’s Lucy MacGregor, Annie Lush and Ally Martin, sail against the third-place finishers, Denmark’s Lotte Pedersen, Tina Schmidt and Trine Palludan. The winners advance to the Finals to sail for gold and silver medals, while the losers are left to battle it out for bronze in the Petit Finals.

In the Laser Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus has overhauled Britain's Nick Thompson to lead by 11 points.

Ed Wright trails Finn race leader Chris Cook of Canada by six points. Wright won his first race but Cook replied with a win in race eight and then took second to Zach Railey in the day's final race. Railey is in third overall.

Even though Austrian 49er sailors Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch have been leading since the regatta’s first day, they are still only 10 points ahead of Spain’s Federico Alonso and crew Arturo Alonso and 13 points ahead of Great Britain’s John Pink and Rick Peacock.

'After today, Spain is our main concern, because they gained a lot of places yesterday,' said Resch, who is a two-time Olympian with Delle Karth. He explained that with 22 aggressive teams sailing these feisty, high-speed skiffs, a rise to the top of the fleet can be as fast as a fall to the bottom of it.

'Today it was so patchy that it was always quite tricky; to stay in the wind was difficult. In the first race it was 3-4 knots but the next two races were more perfect, as the breeze was more stable (6-7 knots). ' He added that tomorrow he expects three more races and it is supposed to be a windier day. 'In those conditions you can win a lot or lose a lot, and with the medal race counting double we have to do our best to have the lowest points going into it.'

Britain's Paul Cambell-James and Mark Asquith are in fifth place and Dave Evans and Simon Hiscock are in sixth.

In the Laser Radial, the USA's Page Railey has a one point lead over team mate Anna Tunnicliffe. Britain's Andrea Brewster is in 12th place and look likely to miss the cut for the Medal race. Christina Bassadone is in 24th place.

Rick Merriman and Phil Tranter of the USA have opened up a 15 point lead in the Star event, second are George Szbo and Rick Peters, with only Flavio Marazzi and Petter Pedersen of Switzerland, in sixth, breaking into the all USA top ten. John Gimson and Ed Greig of Britain are in 12th and Peter O'Leary and Tim Goodbody of Ireland 14th,

Racing for medals on Friday will also be the Skud-18 lead by Scott Whitman and Julia Dorsett of the USA. Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birell will battle for the bronze with Danny McCoy and Audrey Kobayashi of the USA, the British pair have a one point advantage after nine races.

In the 2.4mR medals will be decide between, Allan Leibel of Canada, who leads by ten points from Damien Sguin of France and Paul Tingley of Canada. Britain's Megan Pascoe is in ninth place, an OCS in Thursday's final race ruining her great fightback after second and a third placings.

Spain’s 470 Men’s team of Onan Barreiros and Aaron Sarmiento, who finished fifth at the Olympic Regatta in Qingdao, are also posting a 10-point lead over their closest rivals, the USA’s Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl.

The battle is even closer in the 470 Women’s class between Danish leaders Henriette Koch and Lene Sommer and the USA’s Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving, who are defending World Champions in their class. Only two points separate the two after three races were completed today.

On the boards, Dorian van Rijsseberge from the Netherlands leads the Men ahead of Ivan Pastor of Spain by two points. In the Women, Spain's Marina Alabau has a five point lead from Zofia Klepacke of Portugal.

US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR is part of the 2008 - 2009 ISAF Sailing World Cup for Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls and is also the USA’s only qualifying regatta for determining its 2009 U.S. Sailing Team AlphaGraphics.


US Sailing 2009 Rolex Miami OCR - Top-three Finishes - Day Four

Laser (63 boats) – 8 races
1. Pavlos Kontides (CYP), 5-2-6-12-[23]-8-4-4, 41
2. Nick Thompson (GBR), 3-8-1-1-18-16-[23]-5, 52
3. Lee Parkhill (CAN), 9-[23]-8-14-2-5-8-16, 62

Laser Radial (41 boats) – 8 races
1. Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA), 6-3-2-3-[42/OCS]-1-1-2, 18
2. Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla., USA), 2-5-1-2-1-[7]-7-1, 19
3. Jennifer Spalding (CAN), 1-2-6-7-[11]-10-2-3, 31

Finn (30 boats) – 9 races
1. Christopher Cook (CAN), 1-3-2-4-1-1-[7]-1-2, 15
2. Edward Wright (GBR), 2-4-[6]-3-2-2-1-3-4, 21
3. Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA), 4-5-1-1-6-[7]-4-6-1, 28

470 Men (18 boats) – 9 races
1. Onan Barreiros / Aaron Sarmiento (ESP), 1-[6]-2-1-2-1-1-1-2-1, 11
2. Stuart McNay / Graham Biehl (Lincoln, Mass. / San Diego, Calif.,USA), 3-1-[6]-3-6-3-2-1-2, 21
3. Matthias Schmid / Florian Reichstaedter (AUT), [10]-5-3-2-4-2-4-3-4, 27

470 Women (9 boats) – 9 races
1. Henriette Koch / Lene Sommer (DEN), [4]-1-2-1-1-2-3-2-1, 13
2. Erin Maxwell / Isabelle Kinsolving (Norwalk, Conn. / New York, N.Y., USA), 1-2-[10/OCS]-3-2-1-1-1-4, 15
3. Hanna Saari / Mikaela Wulff (FIN), [5]-5-1-2-3-5-2-5-3, 26

49er (22 boats) – 11 races
1. Nico Delle Karth/ Nikolaus Resch (AUT), 1-1-3-8-2-2-2-[16]-5-2-1, 27
2. Federico Alonso / Arturo Alonso (ESP), 3-[9]-8-3-8-4-1-4-1-3-2, 37
3. John Pink/ Rick Peacok (GBR), 7-2-2-9-1-1-5-5-3-[10]-5, 40

Star (31 boats) – 8 races
1. Rick Merriman / Phil Trinter (New York, N.Y. / Charlottesville, Va., USA), 3-6-[13]-4-2-8-1-2, 26
2. George Szabo/ Rick Peters (San Diego, Calif. / Marina del Ray, Calif.,USA), 2-7-4-12-1-[25]-4-11, 41
3. Geoffrey Ewenson / Skip Dieball (Annapolis, Md. / Toledo, Ohio, USA),6-12-2-1-12-11-2-[17], 46

RS:X Men (34 boats) – 7 races
1. Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED), 2-1-1-4-4-[15]-2, 14
2. Ivan Pastor (ESP), 1-3-2-3-1-6-[11], 16
3. Joao Rodrigues (POR), 3-2-6-7-3-[8]-3, 24

RS:X Women (23 boats) – 7 races
1. Marina Alabau (ESP), 2-2-1-2-1-[3]-1, 9
2. Zofia Klepacka (POL), [5]-3-2-1-3-1-4, 14
3. Blanca Manchon (ESP), 1-1-5-4-[8]-2-3, 16

Women’s Match Racing (12 boats) – After Two Round Robins
1. Giulia Conti / Alessandra Marenzi / Alessandra Angelini (ITA)
2. Lucy MacGregor / Annie Lush / Ally Martin (GBR)
3. Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen / Tina Schmidt / Trine Palludan (DEN)
4. Genevieve Tulloch / Jennifer Morgan Glass / Jamie Haines (Tiburon, Calif. / Seattle, Wash. / Jamestown, R.I., USA)

2.4mR (19 boats) – 10 races
1. Allan Leibel (CAN), 2-1-2-1-3-1-1-[4]-4-2, 17
2. Damien Sguin (FRA), [21/OCS]-4-5-2-4-4-4-1-2-1, 27
3. Paul Tingley (CAN), 1-3-4-3-1-5-6-5-1-[8], 29

Sonar (5 boats) – 10 races
1. John Robertson/ Hannah Stodel/ Alex Wang-Hansen (GBR), 2-[4]-1-2-2-2-2-1-1-1, 14
2. Paul Callahan/ Roger Cleworth/ Tom Brown