Breeze lottery at Rio Games

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (August 10, 2016) – It was a game of two halves on day three of the Olympic Sailing Competition, with the inshore courses forcing the sailors to make the best of a light-wind lottery.

Out to sea it couldn’t have been more different, with the Niterói and Copacabana courses offering up high winds and mountainous waves. The Sugarloaf course made for a wildly unpredictable but entertaining debut for the new Mixed Multihull event.

Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17

Matias Buhler and Nathalie Brugger (SUI) emerged top of the rankings after two whacky opening races for the Nacra 17 on the notoriously tricky Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf Mountain) race course. The Swiss are on equal points with Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves (GBR), with Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG) holding third overall.

With the fleet starting in 10 knots of breeze, the Mixed Multihull fleet shot up the track. But, the breeze was all over the place and no lead was ever safe. The Swiss emerged at the front at one point, only to be swallowed up by the pack at the halfway stage. But then Buhler and Brugger found their way through to the front once more, only to see their 200 meter lead disappear in the dying moments of the final leg.

The fleet was closing fast and the top six boats all crossed the finish line within five seconds of each other. The Swiss beat Singapore by a whisker. “A really tricky day,” said Brugger. “Difficult with very shifty and gusty winds, so we had to improvise and keep the eyes open. We had some hard moments back in the fleet but we were always fighting and had a really good team spirit.”

Justin Liu (SIN) didn’t even know how well he’d done until he came ashore. “That photo finish, we’ve no idea how we did, where did we finish?” he asked the press, delighted to discover he and crew Denise Lim had finished second. “The wind was everywhere, super crazy, we were near the back at one point, but we fought our way back.” Even with a 16th in the next race, the Singaporeans lie in 8th overall.

The British were consistent with scores of 3,5. Saxton was smiling but still not that sure about the secret to success other than, “Give it a go, do your best and hopefully by the end of six legs it will be good enough.”

The four-time World Champions Billy Besson and Marie Riou (FRA) had a worrying first day and sit in 17th place in the 20-boat fleet. Besson is carrying a severe long-term back injury and is struggling even to walk any distance, so one can only imagine the pain he is suffering to compete on board the athletic Nacra 17.

Bora Gulari and Louisa Chafee (USA) had a 13-10, and stand two points out of the Medal round. They struggled on the first legs after the start, but seemed to get stronger as each race progressed.

Nikola Girke and Luke Ramsay (CAN) kicked off their Olympic competition with an action packed opening race. It was a game of snakes and ladders from end to end with the Canadians with a 4th place finish. They finished 17th in the second race and sit in 10th overall.

The Nacras were postponed on water for 2 hours before sailing race 2 with the third race of the day being called off.

Results, Nacra 17 Mixed – Top 5 (2 races)
Matias Buhler and Nathalie Brugger (SUI) 8 points
Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves (GBR) 8
Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG) 13
Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin (AUS) 14
Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank (AUT) 16

Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470

Through all the crazy unpredictability of the courses closer to shore, such as on the Escola Naval (Navy School) course, somehow the reigning World Champions from Croatia picked their way through the melée. Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) have notched up a 1,2 for their opening scores, and are living up to their billing as the main threat to Australia’s defense of the Olympic title from London 2012.

That said, Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS) had a very respectable day, bouncing back from some bad starts to record an 8,1 putting the Aussies in second overall. “This is what the Games are meant to be,” said Belcher. “It’s supposed to be challenging, to really test yourself. Today saw that. We were back in a lot of cases, got back up the front and posted two good races.”

Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (NZL) lie in third overall. Snow-Hansen commented, “Just like all big regattas, we’re getting conditions you don’t normally expect. But we’re happy to roll with it and enjoy the snakes and ladders out there.”

Stu McNay and Dave Hughes USA) stand in 8th with finishes of 10-7 today. Jacob and Graeme Saunders (CAN) took on their first day of Olympic sailing today on the Escola Naval course. Challenging conditions created some first day difficulties on the scoreboard for the siblings. Team Saunders finishes today were 26 and 20 to sit in 24th overall.

Results, 470 Men – Top 5 (2 races)
Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) 3 points
Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS) 9
Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (NZL) 12
Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis (GRE) 12
Mattias Schmid and Florian Reichstaedter (AUT) 12

Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470

Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka (JPN) put together a very good first day on the very fluky Escola Naval (Navy School) course, the Japanese were holding a two point lead over the defending Olympic Champions, Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL). Aleh and Powrie were then disqualified from race 1, leaving them with a score of 22 points overall (after winning the second race) and dropping them into 10th. Austria protested the New Zealand crew around a port starboard (right of way) incident which occurred soon after the start of race one and the Jury found in favour of Austria. Tina Mrak and Veronika Macarol (SLO) move into second place ahead of the Americans.

The London 2012 silver medalists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR) would have hoped for a better first day, but are still in fifth overall after fighting their way back from bad starts in both races. “Not much of an excuse for our poor first decisions off the start line in both races,” admitted Clark. “From then on we were playing catch up and we did a reasonable job. Today might look like a good day at the end of this week.”

Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha (USA) were pleased with their opening day, finishing 7th and 3rd, the Americans in third overall after the New Zealand team was disqualified. “It was a really tricky day,” said Provancha, “Super cool to be racing out there. The goal of day one is to be consistent and not lose the regatta. We did our job today. It was about looking for the dark water and going for your hunches.”

Results, 470 Women – Top 5 (2 races)
Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka (JPN) 5 points
Tina Mrak and Veronika Macarol (SLO) 8
Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha (USA) 10
Fernanda Oliveira and Ana Luiza Barbachan (BRA) 10
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR) 11

Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial

Annalise Murphy (IRL) has always loved the strong breeze and big waves and the Irish sailor took full advantage with some good scores to move into the overall lead. However, Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) had an even better day with scores of 3,1 to move to within a point of Murphy. Just a point behind the Dane is the London 2012 silver medalist, Marit Bouwmeester (NED).

It wasn’t such a good outing for the reigning Olympic Champion Lijia Xu (CHN), whose scores of 8,12 have dropped the Chinese sailor down to fifth overall. An even bigger casualty was Evi van Acker (BEL), whose scores of 16,15 have dropped the 2012 bronze medalist to tenth overall. With just four races before the Medal Race, time is running out for van Acker to get back in contention.

Paige Railey (USA) stands 7th in the Laser Radial Class. She needs a couple good races to move her up the leader board if she hopes to win a medal. Consistency is her goal now. She has a 15-2-9-21-2-7 so far in the series, with four races before the Medal Race. Brenda Bowskill (CAN) finished 10, 19 today and she is in 19th overall.

Results, Radial Women – Top 5 (6 races; 1 discard)
Annalise Murphy (IRL) 19 points
Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) 20
Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 21
Lijia Xu (CHN) 27
Tuula Tenkanen (FIN) 30.8

Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser

Tonci Stipanovic (CRO) is back in charge of the leaderboard after Julio Alsogaray (ARG) tumbled down the order with a 24th followed by a UFD disqualification for crossing the start line too early. The big winner of the day was reigning World Champion Nick Thompson (GBR) who charged up the rankings with a 2,1 and now sits in second overall, two points in front of another star performer of the day, Rutger van Schaardenburg (NED). Robert Scheidt (BRA) is just four points off the podium, the Brazilian within striking distance of winning a record sixth Olympic medal.

Charlie Buckingham (USA) stands 15th with a 2-7-10-22-8-26. He must string together four good races to reach the medal round. Lee Parkhill (CAN) has finishes of 19 and 20, and sits in 30th overall.

Results, Laser Men – Top 5 (6 races; 1 discard)
Tonci Stipanović (CRO) 26 points
Nick Thompson (GBR) 35
Rutger van Schaardenburg (NED) 37
Robert Scheidt (BRA) 41
Tom Burton (AUS) 43

Heavyweight Men’s One Person Dinghy – Finn

Giles Scott (GBR) seized the day, reveling in the high winds and mighty waves on the Niterói course. The four-time and reigning World Champion leapt up from tenth overall to the top of the leaderboard after a second place followed by victory in the next. “It’s important not to panic,” said Scott of his shaky start to the regatta the previous day. “You have to think going into the week that the difficult course would be Sugarloaf. It was nice to get into today and have different conditions to get to grips with.”

Ioannis Mitakis (GRE) also mastered the conditions and scores of 3,2 rocketed the Greek to fourth in the overall rankings, behind Vasilij Zbogar (SLO) and Alican Kaynar (TUR) in second and third respectively. Jonathan Lobert’s (FRA) win in the first race of the day keeps the London 2012 bronze medalist in the hunt, lying in fifth place just a point ahead of the 2012 silver medalist Jonas Hogh-Christensen (DEN).

“We had 25 to 30 knots and massive waves, epic conditions, a little gnarly at the end,” said the great Dane. “Unfortunately I ripped my sail apart and had to retire from the last race. That’s never happened to me before. It’s a missed opportunity because it could have been two good scores today.”

Caleb Paine (USA) had a race he would rather forget, with a 21st out of 23 boats (his discard to date), but came back strong in Race Four with a third. Paine sits in seventh overall.

Tom Ramshaw (CAN) faced challenging conditions and equipment issues on Niteroi course. The former Laser sailor admits to the steep learning curve in his new boat. “I was really feeling the lack of time in this boat today. A few errors in judgment and gear issues reminded me of that. I’ve never sailed this boat in these kinds of conditions. It was tiring but I knew that going into this event,” Ramshaw said. His finishes were 23 and 13 and sits in 19th overall.

Results, Finn – Top 5 (4 races)
Giles Scott (GBR) 6 points
Vasilij Zbogar (SLO) 11
Alican Kaynar (TUR) 13
Ioannis Mitakis (GRE) 17
Jonathan Lobert (FRA)

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Source: World Sailing