Gold for GBR Sonar team at US Sailing's Rolex Miami OCR

by Event media / GJN on 1 Feb 2009
Great Britain’s Sonar team of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Alex Wang-Hansen won the final two races to take gold at the US Sailing's Rolex Miami OCR. 'The wind came in quite nicely at 8-10 knots with 20 degree shifts,' said Robertson. 'We’ve been quick enough, but we can use our speed a bit more if we get the shifts right as well.'

Robertson represented his country in both the 2004 and 2008 Paralympics but finished out of the medal running each time. 'After the disappointment of Qingdao,' said Robertson, who had won the test event preceding it and was favourite for a podium finish, 'it’s good to get back into winning form again. And it’s always good coming to Miami as well.'
Silver went to USA’s Paul Callahan, sailing with crew Roger Cleworth and Tom Brown and Bronze to Rick Doerr, Maureen McKinnon-Tucker and Hugh Freund.

There was no pressure on America's Skud-18 sailors Scott Whitman and Julia Dorset to win their two races today and, thus, claim the gold medal. Silver went to another USA pair, John McRoberts and Brenda Hopkin with Britain's Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell taking the Bronze.

In the 2.4mR Class, it was an able-bodied sailor, Canada’s Allan Leibel, who took the gold medal because of a dispensation in the rules allowing for open entry. (US Sailing has traditionally included able-bodied sailors in this popular class and decided to allow it again during this transition year of becoming a World Cup event.) Leibel fought off week-long advances from two-time Paralympic medalist Damien Seguin of France, who ultimately took the silver medal but will accumulate World Cup points based on his beating out all other disabled entrants here. Bronze went to Paul Tingley of Canada. Britain's Megan Pascoe finished ninth.

'This class has a huge worldwide fleet in which 80 percent of the athletes are able-bodied,' said Leibel. 'It happens to be a boat that, with modifications, a disabled athlete can sail and be equal. I’ve been to three Olympic Games (’72, ’76, and ’80, sailing in Dragon, Tempest and Star classes, respectively), and these guys are as good as any. They are training full time, fully coached…just superb. I look at them as sailors, not anything else.'

The other event to finish Friday was the Women’s Match Racing. Denmark’s Lotte Pedersen, with Tina Schmidt and Trine Palludan won the Gold medal. The final contest went all five races with Pedersen’s team posting a final win-loss score of 3-2 over the Italian team of Giulia Conti, Alessandra Marenzi and Alessandra Angelini.

Britain's Lucy MacGregor, Annie Lush and Ally Martin went down to Pedersen in the semi-final and then won the sail-off for Bronze, beating Genevieve Tulloch, Jennifer Morgan Glassand Jamie Haines of the USA.

Saturday the remaining Olympic classes sail their Medal races, with the top ten of each event racing with courses shortened for approximately 30-minute races, it should be a quick day, unless the wind causes postponements as it has on-and-off since Monday, when this event began. The stakes are high, just as they will be in the Olympics, with the single race weighing in for double in the sailors' score lines and not allowed as a discard.

In the Laser class Britain's Nick Thompson leads by nine points from Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus, with Brad Funk of the USA in third. In the Radial Anna Tunnicliffe and Paige Railey of the USA will battle for the Gold with Jennifer Splading of Canada looking to take the bronze. Britain's Andrea Brewster missed a Medal race position by one place.

The Finn event will be a classic close finish with Chris Cook of Canada going into the final race with a one point lead over Ed Wright of Britain. Zach Railey of the USA will be waiting to pounce if these two race themselves out of contention.

In the 49er, Nico Karth/ and Nikolaus Resch of Austria have a nine point cushion ahead of Britain's John Pink and Rick Peacock, with the Spanish pair Federico Alonso and Arturo Alonso holding third place. Paul Campbell-James and Mark Asquith, and Dave Evans and Simon Hiscock have also qualified for the Medal race.

In the Star event, Britain's John Gimson and Ed Greig finished 13th in the series racing. The Medal race will be an USA event except for the Swiss pair, Flavio Marazzi and Petter Pedersen, who are in third place and with a chance of Silver. Ireland's Peter O'leary and Tim Goodbody also missed the cut, finishing 12th.

US Sailing's 2009 Rolex Miami OCR - Top-three Finishes, Day Five

Women's Match Racing (12 boats) - Final Standings
Gold - Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen / Tina Schmidt / Trine Palludan (DEN)
Silver - Giulia Conti / Alessandra Marenzi / Alessandra Angelini (ITA)
Bronze - Lucy MacGregor / Annie Lush / Ally Martin (GBR)

2.4mR (19 boats) - Final Standings
Gold - Allan Leibel (CAN), 2-1-2-1-3-1-1-4-4-2-[7]-2, 23
Silver - Damien Sguin (FRA), [21/OCS]-4-5-2-4-4-4-1-2-1-1-3, 31
Bronze - Paul Tingley (CAN), 1-3-4-3-1-5-6-5-1-[8]-5-8, 42

Sonar (5 boats) - Final Standings
Gold - John Robertson/ Hannah Stodel/ Alex Wang-Hansen (GBR), 2-[4]-1-2-2-2-2-1-1-1-3-3, 20
Silver - Paul Callahan/ Roger Cleworth/ Tom Brown (USA), 1-1-2-4-1-3-1-[5]-3-4-5-4, 29
Bronze - Rick Doerr/ Maureen McKinnon-Tucker/ Hugh Freund (USA), [5]-2-5-1-3-5-3-3-2-3-2-1, 30

SKUD 18 (5 boats) - Final Standings
Gold - Scott Whitman/ Julia Dorsett (USA), [1]-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1, 10
Silver - John McRoberts / Brenda Hopkin (CAN), 3-4-[6/RAF]-6/DSQ-2-2-2-2-2-2-3, 28
Bronze - Alexandra Rickham/ Niki Birrell (GBR), 2-5-3-2-5-3-[6/DNF]-3-4-6/DNS-2, 35

Other Olympic classes to race Final Medal Races

Laser (63 boats) - 9 races
1. Nick Thompson (GBR), 3-8-1-1-18-16-[23]-5-3, 55
2. Pavlos Kontides (CYP), 5-2-6-12-23-8-4-4-[64/DNS], 64
3. Brad Funk (USA), 28-20-3-3-12-[64/OCS]-5-2-7, 80

Laser Radial (41 boats) - 10 races
1. Anna Tunnicliffe (USA), 2-5-1-2-1-[7]-7-1-1-1, 21
2. Paige Railey (USA), 6-3-2-3-[42/OCS]-1-1-2-4-4, 26
3. Jennifer Spalding (CAN), 1-2-6-7-[11]-10-2-3-2-11, 44

Finn (30 boats) - 11 races
1. Christopher Cook (CAN), 1-3-2-4-1-1-7-1-2-2-[9], 24
2. Edward Wright (GBR), 2-4-[6]-3-2-2-1-3-4-3-1, 25
3. Zach Railey (USA), 4-5-1-1-6-[7]-4-6-1-6-3, 37

470 Men (18 boats) - 11 races
1. Onan Barreiros / Aaron Sarmiento (ESP), 1-[6]-2-1-2-1-1-1-2-1-1-4, 16
2. Stuart McNay / Graham Biehl (USA), 3-1-[6]-3-6-3-2-1-2-2-3, 26
3. Matthias Schmid / Florian Reichstaedter (AUT), [10]-5-3-2-4-2-4-3-4-4-1, 32

470 Women (9 boats) - 11 races
1. Henriette Koch / Lene Sommer (DEN), 4-1-2-1-1-2-3-2-1-[5]-1, 18
2. Erin Maxwell / Isabelle Kinsolving (USA), 1-2-[10/OCS]-3-2-1-1-1-4-4-5, 24
3. Hanna Saari / Mikaela Wulff (FIN), [5]-5-1-2-3-5-2-5-3-2-2, 30

49er (22 boats) - 14 races
1. Nico Delle Karth/ Nikolaus Resch (AUT), 1-1-3-8-2-2-2-[16]-5-2-1-11-2-1, 41
2. John Pink/ Rick Peacok (GBR), 7-2-2-9-1-1-5-5-3-[10]-5-2-1, 50
3. Federico Alonso / Arturo Alonso (ESP), 3-[9]-8-3-8-4-1-4-1-3-2-8-7, 56

Star (31 boats) - 10 races
1. Rick Merriman / Phil Trinter (USA), 3-6-[13]-4-2-8-1-2-13-9, 48
2. George Szabo/ Rick Peters (USA), 2-7-4-12-1-[25]-4-11-7-7, 55
3. Flavio Marazzi / Petter Pedersen Morland (SUI), 1-3-1-[32/OCS]-5-5-32/OCS-6-1-4, 58

RS:X Men (34 boats) - 9 races
1. Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED), 2-1-1-4-4-[15]-2-4-2, 20
2. Ivan Pastor (ESP), 1-3-2-3-1-6-[11]-5-6, 27
3. Joao Rodrigues (POR), 3-2-6-7-3-8-3-[10], 33

RS:X Women (23 boats) - 9 races
1. Marina Alabau (ESP), 2-2-1-2-1-3-1-2-[24/OCS], 14
2. Zofia Klepacka (POL), [5]-3-2-1-3-1-4-3-1, 18
3. Blanca Manchon (ESP), 1-1-5-4-[8]-2-3-1-5, 22