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What's an Olympic medal really worth?
| Antipodes - ready for RCSR 2016 © RHKYC/Guy Nowell | The Australians are getting excited about the prospect of a rich haul of sailing medals at the Rio Olympics. At Athens, Sydney and Qingdao the top-scoring nation was Great Britain, but at Weymouth 2012 it was Australia, and they do like to rub the Pommie noses in it (just as we like remind them about cricket occasionally). But is an Olympic medal really the absolute acme of sailing? The qualifying procedure absolutely guarantees that any Olympic regatta has a number of top sailors in any given fleet, and then the makeweights. The qualifying procedure does not mean that the world's top 20 Laser sailors will be duking it out for the most glittering prize of all – that is left to the various World Championships that take place every year, at which the top sailors in any class are going to compete, regardless of nationality and qualifying rules. For example the top 10 finishers at the 2015 Etchells Worlds in Hong Kong included four USA crews, three AUS, two GBR and one NZL. That couldn't happen at the Olympics, meaning that de facto the competition is not between the best Laser, 470, Tornado etc sailors in the world. And therefore a Worlds title must be worth more than an Olympic medal. Just a thought.
It is cold and rainy in Hong Kong today, and it's Easter next weekend, in an even-numbered year, meaning that it must be Rolex China Sea Race time. Asia's blue riband offshore race starts on Wednesday; your Editor has dug out his sea boots from the bottom of the locker and will be sailing on Antipodes, a boat well-known around the Asian ‘circuit'. The first time I crossed the China Sea was in 1989, on a Farr 38 called Intrigue, and it was also the toughest crossing I have made of that rather underestimated patch of water. The China Sea Race is now more than half a century old. Like all ‘good' races, its longevity is due to the fact that it is maddeningly difficult to win - nothing to do with the fact that most sailors are happy to swap cold weather and hot drinks for cold beer and hot weather at this time of year! See you in Subic.
Standing by on 72.
Guy Nowell, Asia Editor
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Naa, please don't send me another.
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