Medal Races Determine Champions in Olympic Classes
It’s not often in a sailing regatta that a single 30-minute race decides the outcome, but that’s exactly what happened on the last day of competition for US SAILING’s Rolex Miami OCR, serving as the second of seven stops on the 2008 - 2009 ISAF Sailing World Cup tour. The event, which began on Monday, hosted 444 sailors from 41 countries in ten Olympic and three Paralympic classes, with nine of those Olympic classes participating in today’s spectacular finale in which top-ten sailors, determined from scores after five days of fleet racing, competed in medal races that counted double for points and could not be used as throw-outs. (Paralympic and Women’s Match Racing medals were determined yesterday, according to schedule.)
RS:X Women’sIn the RS:X Women’s class, the 23-board fleet had more than a dozen countries represented, but it was Marina Alabau (ESP) who took gold, on the strength of a second-place finish today. “It was a little difficult because of the strong wind,” said Alabau. “It is not my wind. But I said before the race, ‘I can do it.’” Like many sailors here, Alabau, who represented her country at the 2008 Olympics, was happy to use this regatta as a kick-off training session for the new quadrennium.
470 Women’s In the nine-boat 470 Women’s class, Henriette Koch and Lene Sommer (DEN) took the gold over silver medalists Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving (Norwalk, Conn. / New York, N.Y., USA), who are the current world champions and now have a spot on the U.S. Sailing Team AlphaGraphics.
Maxwell explained that had it not been for a mishap yesterday (they capsized in the last race), things might have been quite different. “We had a huge lead on the fleet in that race, and we were saying to ourselves ‘all we have to do is beat the Danish (which we were doing) and don’t flip!,’” said Maxwell, explaining that had they not, they would have won and simply had to have beaten the Danish in the medal race today to take gold. “We knew it was going to be a big breeze in the meda race and that would be to our advantage.” As Maxwell foreshadowed in her story, she and Kinsolving won today’s race while the Danish team finished second, leaving a point spread of four points between them.
Laser In the 63-boat Laser class, the largest here, Nick Thompson (GBR) had to keep Pavlos Kontides (CYP) at bay today to win the gold. “First I pinned him to the left and then I pinned him on the right,” said Thompson about his tactics on two different upwind legs, which left Kontides to settle for silver. “It was good fun, very shifty,” said Thompson, “but I wasn’t really playing shifts; I was spending so much time looking behind me. Another one he loosely covered was Brad Funk (Plantation, Fla. USA), who took bronze and is now on the U.S. Sailing Team AlphaGraphics. “Brad had to beat me or finish within four boats, but I had more of a speed edge on him,” said Thompson.
Laser Radial Skipper/Crew : Anna Tunnicliffe Sail Number : USA 192050 Hometown : Plantation, Fl, USA Country : USA Fleet : Laser Radial
Laser Radial The top battle in the 41-boat Laser Radial fleet was between long-time U.S. Sailing Team AlphaGraphics members Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla., USA) and Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA). Tunnicliffe, a gold medalist from Qingdao who has been named US SAILING’s Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, finished third today to Railey’s fourth, leaving Railey the silver medal. “Paige had a good start,” said Tunnicliffe, with a nod to the 15-18 knot winds. “My plan was to be top-three and at worst be two boats behind her. I had a decent start and was fourth at the top mark with Paige in front of me and the two Danish teams in first and second.” Tunnicliffe explained that one Danish team fell back and she split at the gates with Railey. “That put me ahead of Paige, so I just covered her from there.” About this event being part of the inaugural ISAF World Cup, Tunnicliffe said: “There’s a bit more pressure to perform. It was a nice way to start the quadrennium.”
Cumulative points tallied from the inaugural ISAF Sailing World Cup 2008-2009 will determine World Cup champions in each of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic classes. The series started with Sail Melbourne (Australia) last December and rounds out with the Trofeo SAR Princess Sofia (Palma, Spain) and Semaine Olympique Française (Hyères, France) in April; Delta Lloyd Regatta (Medemblik, The Netherlands) in May; Kieler Woche (Kiel, Germany) in June; and Skandia Sail for Gold (Weymouth, Great Britain) in September.
Regatta results, photos and updates are posted at www.RolexMiamiOCR.org. Video highlights, produced by t2p.tv, can be viewed at the same URL.