London Olympics day 5 - Plavsic in the zone

by Canadian Sailing Team on 3 Aug 2012 London Olympics day 5 sailing competition in Weymouth, England.

Lots of shuffling today, be it by position, results, weather or wind - nothing was steady. Day 5 of the Summer 2012 Olympic Games at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy saw the mens 470 on the water for the first time in the regatta. Off today were the Laser and Radial fleets for some well deserved rest and recovery.

Weather was chilly this morning once again, with temperatures in the range of 10 degrees. Clouds were low and wind was up around 17 - 20 knots. Top results come from the board sailors once again today, both posting top tens.

Zac Plavsic, mens RS:X sailor, was in the zone once again, nailing an eighth place finish in his first race. Shifts prevented the west coast sailor from doing his best in race two, as he posted a 17th. We caught up with him after his day on the water, 'I am happy about my first race but my second race really hurts my average points for the day. I knew the right was favored but my stubborn body went left in an effort to recover from a bad start. A risk that didn’t pay today.' His female counter part Nikola Girke was also shining today, taking home an eighth and a 10th place finish. 'I’m executing well, getting good starts, I am just not getting enough speed. I am going to go out on my reserve day tomorrow to fine tune and will come back full force on Saturday.' Both board sailors have the day off tomorrow, with racing resuming on Saturday. Zac sits at eighth overall and Nikola at ninth.

The 470 crew from both side of Canada Mike Leigh and Luke Ramsay had a less then exciting start to their regatta. The guys posted a 24th and 20th today, putting them in 25th overall. Still lots of racing left for this duo, as this was only their first day on the water.

The 49er guys Gordon Cook and Hunter Lowden had an up and down kindof day, Finishing 16th and eighth. They sit at 15th overall currently. Their coach Jason Rhodes, 'The wind seemed to favor hard left as per usual this morning, but the sky cleared puffs developed from the right which is rare for Weymouth. The 49er guys sailed smart but got caught going to the left when the right paid unfortunately. Their speed was great, they had two good starts which was our goal going into today.'

Greg Douglas was back today in the Finn fleet. Having missed out on his ideal conditions yesterday due to a lay day, he was happy to take on whatever Weymouth could throw at him. He sailed in a tight pack once again, finishing 13 and 17 in a fleet of 24 boats. Two races remain for Douglas to qualify for the medal race, currently he sits at 15th overall.

Star sailors Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn were back at it as well, having another frustrating day. 'We had great starts both races but just could not get our speed up. We tried everything, but nothing worked.' The duo placed 13th and 12th putting them in 13th overall. With only 2 races left for this very intense fleet, chances are slim we’ll see the Canadians in the final medal race.

Keep checking in on the team as we come to a near close at the 2012 Summer Games! We’ll be watching with anticipation as the Canadian men’s and women’s RS:X come nearer and nearer to medal race qualification. As always check out the Canadian Sailing Team on Facebook for the latest results canadiansailingteam.ca!here! for our take on the day and ISAF’s Olympic coverage of the sailing at Weymouth and Portland.

Sail fast Canada, we know you have it in you!

www.canadiansailingteam.ca