Diary
August 21, 2007
Dean Brenner
Team Leader, Chairman of the US Olympic Sailing Program
We finally had some good breeze today. The irony is that the breeze we had was about 5-8 knots, which for this event is like a 15 knot sea breeze! Regardless, we had multiple races on every race course today, and fleets were reduced to the top ten, or the Medal Race group, in several classes.
Medal Races are scheduled tomorrow (wind permitting, of course) in RS:X, 49er, Tornado, 470, Finn and Star. And the U.S. will be represented in the Medal Race in the 49er, Tornado, Finn and 470 Women.
The highlight for Team USA tomorrow will be the 49er Medal Race. Morgan Larson and Pete Spaulding are firmly in the hunt for a spot on the podium. They are in 4th place, 2 points from 3rd and 6 points from 1st. And remember, the results in the Medal Race count twice. We’ll be out there cheering hard for Morgan and Pete, as well as Johnny Lovell and Charlie Ogletree in the Tornado, Zach Railey in the Finn and Amanda Clark and Sarah Mergenthaler in the 470.
We are also scheduled to have more races tomorrow in the Laser, Radial and Yngling, with the Medal Race for those classes scheduled for Thursday. Team USA is in the hunt for Gold in the Radial and Yngling. Anna Tunnicliffe put on a clinic today, with a 1-1-2 in the Radial, and now has a 12 point lead over the second place boat. And Sally Barkow, Debbie Capozzi and Carrie Howe are tied for 1st in the Yngling with their rivals from Great Britain. The next two days are going to be exciting.
We’re hoping for decent breeze to race in tomorrow, and we’ll be cheering hard for Team USA.
Please make sure to follow along with the event at http://www.ussailing.org/olympics/qingdao/qingdao.htm.
Sail fast,
Dean Brenner
Chairman, US Olympic Sailing Program
Team Leader, 2007 Olympic Test Event