Team 7 Sailing win silver at Yngling Worlds

by Marni H Lane on 12 Jul 2007
After a tight Medal Race today, USA's Yngling trio of Sally Barkow (Chenequa, Wis.), Carrie Howe (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) ('Team 7') won a silver medal at the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Cascais, Portugal.

Team 7's silver medal places them on the podium at the Yngling World Championship for the third year in a row, affirming their place among the most competitive teams in their class. Their performance also qualifies the United States for a spot in their class at the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition in Qingdao, China. The U.S. has also qualified for Olympic spots in the Finn, Laser Radial, Laser, Star and Tornado classes.

Barkow and her crew demonstrated their typical confidence and strength in the Medal Race format today, finishing a solid second place. They placed the necessary boats between them and their competition to move up to silver overall. According to US SAILING's High Performance Director Gary Bodie, the final position of the other boats in the race left Team 7 with the silver, but only several feet from the gold.

'Even though she didn’t win, Sally [and her team] put on the best show of anyone out there,' said Bodie.

Amidst windy and challenging conditions, six World Champion titles have been decided thus far, and the racing continues for six more Olympic classes through Friday. Anna Tunnicliffe (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), ranked the number one Laser Radial sailor on the 2007 US Sailing Team, finished fifth in a 112-boat fleet, while top-ranked Tornado sailors Johnny Lovell (New Orleans, La.) and Charlie Ogletree (Kemah, Tex.) finished 10th out of 49 boats.

Medal Races are scheduled for the RS:X (Men and Women) on Thursday, while the 470s (Men and Women) and 49ers are scheduled for Friday.

The results from the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships will be used to determine 75 percent of the country spots at the Olympic Games for each Olympic Class. The remaining 25 percent for each class will be determined at their respective 2008 World Championships.

For complete results, photos and news, please visit the official event web site: http://www.cascaisworlds2007.com/

For a full list of the American competitors and their hometowns, please visit: http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/ISAF Sailing World Championships_USA_Entry List.pdf