SAILING: Australia’s sailors are within medal reach in several classes, after a challenging day of racing off Marina de Gloria.
It was a day of waiting for the wind and despite the target 1pm start, racing was postponed for a great deal of the afternoon pending the arrival of the breeze. By 4.45pm Aussies were racing in five classes.
Leading the charge for the Aussies were the 470 Men, Mat Belcher and Will Ryan. Only getting one race in today after a delay of several hours, the Aussies had a slow start but worked their way through the fleet to cross the finish line in second place. This leaves them in second overall and only two points behind the Croatians. Having completed five races of their preliminary series of 10 races, the Aussies are in good shape and are eight points ahead of the third-placed Brits.
“We had a pretty hard race today,” said Ryan. “We had to keep plugging away and managed to finish second. We’ve had a few good days. This is what we’ve been working towards, so we’re ready for it!”
The 470s get a scheduled rest day tomorrow, so Belcher and Ryan will return to the race course on Sunday for their next races.
Meanwhile in the Laser class, Australia’s Tom Burton has had a strong day to move up the leaderboard to third place overall. Burton is only five points off Croatia in first place, and two points off Brazil’s five-times Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt in second place.
“It was good to get two solid results in today,” said Burton. “I still need a good day tomorrow. We’re on medal race course tomorrow, so it may turn out to be tricky. I need to sail well again.”
London 2012 gold medallists, Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen also began their Olympic regatta today in the 49er class. It was a tough day for the Aussies who were sailing on the medal race course under Sugarloaf Mountain. They finished the first race in 13th and then finished the second race in eighth position. They are currently lying 11th overall.
“We obviously didn’t get it right in both of the races, but we were pretty happy with the second race to get a keeper,” said Outteridge. “We haven’t lost the event but we definitely haven’t set the world on fire, so it’s a good starting point for us.”
The 470 women also only got one race in today. Australia’s Carrie Smith and Jaime Ryan crossed the line in seventh place today and are currently 11th overall. While in the Laser Radial class, Australia’s Ashley Stoddart is 13th overall after scoring a 24 and 11 in today’s two races.
Racing in the Laser, Laser Radial, Finn, Nacra and 49er classes will commence tomorrow from 1pm Rio time (2am Sunday 14 August AEST).
Megan McKay
olympics.com.au
