SAILING: Sunday 24 August will be used for the medal races of the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Sailing Competition after light wind, a freak storm and further light breeze forced a third day of postponements.
“I wanted to race again because I know that I could do better,” Australia’s Byte CII sailor Elyse Ainsworth said.
“I wasn't sitting that well after the first three days, but I thought I've still got a few races left, I can definitely change it. But now we're just sitting here for the past two days, going on to three with no wind and it's so frustrating because I know that I could have done better.”
Teammate Tom Cunich may be a man of few words at times, but he had a clear plan of how he was going to use those three missed Byte CII races.
“I was going to get back in the top ten and get closer to a medal position is what I was hoping to do- I had plenty of races to be able to do it.”
Despite spending a third day playing soccer, table tennis and Uno instead of sailing, "it's just how it goes" the two agreed.
After only sailing 7 of the planned 10 preliminary races, the medal races today were appropriately plagued by lack of wind as well.
Things became even more interesting when a breeze of around 10-15 knots suddenly picked up late in the afternoon. As the Byte CII sailors launched, things started to get a bit fruity on the water as the winds picked up and started gusting up to 30 knots.
The Race Committee did not hesitate in sending the sailors back ashore to wait for the storm to pass through. Once it did, the breeze dropped considerably and the decision to cancel the day was made at 16:30.
The competition was scheduled to finish today with a non discardable, single medal race for all fleets on the agenda. The postponement to tomorrow sees 4-5 knots predicted but also moderate to heavy rain on the forecast.
These Youth Olympic sailors have already been thrown many things, and they hope one last long trip out to the sailing venue will be rewarded with a race. Regardless of what happens on Sunday, four new Youth Olympic champions will be crowned in the Boy's and Girl's Byte CII and Techno 293 fleets. If there is no racing tomorrow, results will stands as they are.
Racing is scheduled to commence at 11:00 local time. The Girl's Byte CII fleet will be up first followed by the Boy's Byte CII, Boy's Techno 293 and Girl's Techno 293.
Four points separates the leaders and second place in the Boy's and Girl's Byte CII. Odile van Aanholt (NED) tops the pack in the girl's whilst Bernie Chin (SIN) sits in the medal position in the boy's fleet. Aussie Ainsworth sits in 24th position on 115 points and Cunich sits on 76 points.
ISAF and Taya Conomos
olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam
