FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Cynthia Goss (East Coast) 203-430-4145
Rich Roberts (West Coast) 310-835-2526 / cell 310-766-6547
West Coast Report / U.S. Olympic & Paralympic
Team Trials - Sailing:
The heat's on in 49ers, Stars and RS:X boards for the last two days
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (October 12, 2007) - 49er
sailors Tim Wadlow and Pete Spaulding represented the U.S. in the 2004
Olympics at Athens, and one of them will be going to Qingdao, China next
summer. Which one that will be is yet to be settled on Coronado Roads off
San Diego, where even the U.S. Navy enjoyed the show Friday. Wadlow's crew
is now Chris Rast, and until Friday they enjoyed a 15-point lead in the
Trials over Spaulding and his new skipper, Morgan Larson. Suddenly, that
lead is four points, and Larson/Spaulding are charging.
Elsewhere, the Stars and RS:X sailboards (including a broken one) are as
tight as ever, while the Finns and 470s look like money in the bank for
current leaders.
49er skiff, Southwestern Yacht Club, San Diego/Wadlow and Rast: Morgan
Larson and crew Pete Spaulding needed the best day possible to put some heat
on leaders Tim Wadlow and Chris Rast, and they got it Friday in 7-11 knots
of breeze when they not only swept the day's three races but discarded their
second 14-point OCS from early in the Trials. That moved them into second
place within four points with 5 of 24 races remaining the last two days.
After a U.S. Navy amphibious LSD courteously altered its anchoring plans and
moved to watch the races from a position just off the course,
Larson/Spaulding twice passed Wadlow/Rast (3-2-3) with more speed upwind out
to sea, then tacked repeatedly to cover for comfortable victories. Wadlow/Rast
nipped Joey Pasquali and crew Rory Giffen by inches in the last race to
avoid losing another point. ---Margo Hemond and Jerelyn Biehl reporting
Star keelboat, California Yacht Club, Marina del Rey: Mendelblatt/Liljedahl:
The final three-boat crush at the top just got excruciating among Mark
Mendelblatt/Magnus Liljedahl at 48 points, John Dane III/Austin Sperry at 49
and George Szabo/Andrew Scott at 50. Three races remain to be sailed in what
Mendelblatt described as "light and fluky" conditions that test the best of
veterans to the max. Friday's wins in breeze building from 6 to 11 knots
went to veterans---who isn't in this fleet?---who were already out of
contention: Joe Londrigan/Mark Strube and Rick Merriman/Phil Trinter, the
latter a 2004 Olympian as crew for Paul Cayard. Triple Olympic medalist Mark
Reynolds and double-medalist crew Hal Haenel are in fourth place but 22
points off the lead. Among the top three, Mendelblatt said, "We're all
trying to keep our eyes on each other, but when you do that you risk losing
everybody else. The guys in this fleet have a lot of respect for one
another. There's a lot at stake here. We all know that only one team is
going to win." ---Tom O'Conor reporting
Tornado multihull, San Diego Yacht Club; Daniel and Stunzi: It was back to
swapping 1-2 finishes like the first four days, and Robbie Daniel and Hunter
Stunzi will settle for it in their battle with triple Olympians John Lovell
and Charlie Ogletree. Ogletree said after Thursday's 4-3 slide on their
bitter mutual 40th birthday, "We dug ourselves a hole, that's for sure." His
comment on the light-air day: "Talk about Qingdao conditions! All we needed
was more tide and some jellyfish." But they seemed to be digging their way
out when they won Friday's first race by 1:56 in 5-8 knots to pull within
two points, until Daniel/Stunzi responded with a 20-second win---almost a
photo finish in this class---in breeze building to 9-12 to restore their
three-point lead with four races to go. Third-place Colin Merrick and John
Sampson capsized and finished last in the first race. ---Mike Foster
reporting
470 dinghy, Men and Women, Alamitos Bay Yacht Club/US Sailing Center, Long
Beach, Calif. / McNay/Biehl and Clark/Mergenthaler: If they maintain the
solid sailing they've shown through the first dozen races, Stuart McNay and
crew Graham Biehl and Amanda Clark and crew Sarah Mergenthaler could punch
their tickets to Qingdao Saturday as America's men's and women's 470 reps.
Each won a race in 14-15 knots in the mixed fleet competition Friday to
leave McNay/Biehl (2-1) with a 20-point lead over Mikee Anderson-Mitterling
and David Hughes (5-4), while Clark/Mergenthaler (1-6) rebuilt their lead
over Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving (8-3) to 11 points. It's been a
hard-luck week for Anderson-Mitterling/Hughes, who led the second race at
the windward mark, where they momentarily dropped out after being mistakenly
notified they had started over early. They appealed and were granted
redress. ---Rick Roberts reporting
RS:X sailboard, Men, ABYC/Ben Barger: The young Floridian Ben Barger broke
his tie with veteran Mike Gebhardt and finished Friday with a two-point
lead---and a busted board. In the day's first race Barger was at fault in a
port-starboard collision with Robert Willis that left a shark bite-like
chunk out of his starboard bow. Willis won both races in lively breeze of
14-15 knots. After last-place Eric Rahnenfuehrer of Breckville, Ohio,
dropped out to loan Barger his board for the second race, Barger was 2-2 but
later on shore had to convince Willis and the jury he had done his penalty
turns. Then his concern was repairing his board overnight. He could borrow
Rahnenfuehrer's again but said, "I appreciate Eric giving up his board, but
I like this board. I'll stay up all night working on it if I have to, and
then we'll see what to do [Saturday]." Rahnenfuehrer said, "This is the
right thing to do. I've known Ben a long time, and as tight as it is at the
top this is in the best interests of the Olympic team."---Rick Roberts
reporting
RS:X sailboard, Women, ABYC/Farrah Hall: Petite Nancy Rios found the
stronger breeze to her liking to win both races Friday and climb into a
first-place tie with Farrah Hall (2-2). Rios has won three of the last four
races.
Finn dinghy, Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Balboa / Zach Railey: Any illusions
rivals had of heading off Zach Railey's charge to China suffered a severe
reversal when he scored 3-1 Friday and left his nearest pursuers, Geoffrey
Ewenson and Darrell Peck, 14 and 15 points behind, respectively, with three
races remaining. Peck (1-5) won the day's first race in light but steady
breeze. Andy Casey was leading the second when his tiller broke and Railey
passed him on the last downwind leg. ---Jeff Johnson reporting
The leaders:
49ER (13 boats; 19 of 24 races; 2 discards):
1. Tim Wadlow (Beverly, Mass.)/Chris Rast (San Diego),
1-2-1-1-3-1-(4)-3-3-1-1-1-1-1-(3)-3-3-2-3, 31 points;
2. Morgan Larson (Capitola, Calif.)/Pete Spaulding (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.),
(14/OCS)-1-2-2-9-(14/OCS)-1-1-1-2-2-2-5-2-1-1-1-1-1, 35;
3. Dalton Bergan (Seattle, Wash.)/Zack Maxam (Costa Mesa, Calif.),
2-4-3-4-1-2-2-2-(14/OCS)-3-4-3-(4)-3-2-2-2-3-2, 44.
TORNADO (6 boats; 12 of 16 races; 1 discard):
1. Robbie Daniel (Clearwater, Fla.)/Hunter Stunzi (Charleston, S.C.),
1-(2)-2-1-1-2-2-1-1-1-2-1, 15 points;
2. John Lovell (New Orleans, La.)/Charlie Ogletree (Kemah, Tex.),
2-1-1-2-2-1-1-2-(4)-3-1-2, 18;
3. Colin Merrick (Portsmouth, R.I.)/John Sampson (Rumson, N.J.),
4-3-5-3-4-4-3-4-3-4-(6)-4, 41.
STAR (19 boats; 13 of 16 races; 1 discard):
1. Mark Mendelblatt (St. Petersburg, Fla.)/Magnus Liljedahl (Miami,
Fla.), 3-3-1-8-1-3-6-2-5-10-4-(12)-2, 48 points;
2. John Dane III/Austin Sperry (Gulfport, Miss.),
1-10-6-2-8-1-5-4-(12)-2-3-4-3, 49;
3. George Szabo (San Diego)/Andrew Scott (Annapolis),
2-1-(1)-1-7-3-4-9-6-2-1-1-8-6, 50.
FINN (42 boats; 13 of 16 races; 1 discard):
1. Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla.), 1-2-(12)-1-1-1-1-13-8-3-1, 24 points;
2. Geoffrey Ewenson (Annapolis), 2-3-(10)-4-3-2-2-4-3-1-3-7-4, 38;
3. Darrell Peck (Gresham, Ore.), 4-4-1-3-2-3-4-3-4-(6)-5-5-1, 39.
RS:X MEN (6 boats; 12 of 16 races; 1 discard):
1. Ben Barger (Tampa, Fla.),
(8/RAF)-1-2-1-2-1-3-2-2-1-2-2, 19 points;
2. Mike Gebhardt (Ft. Pierce, Fla.), 2-(3)-1-2-1-2-1-3-1-2-3-3, 21;
3. Robert Willis (Chicago, Ill.), 1-2-5-3-(6)-3-2-1-4-4-1-1, 27.
RS:X WOMEN (7 boats; 12 of 16 races; 1 discard):
1. Tie between Nancy Rios (Miami, Fla.), 2-(4)-1-3-2-2-4-4-1-2-1-1, and
1. Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md.),
(4)-1-4-1-3-3-1-1-2-3-2-2, 23 points;
3. Lisa Kremer (Worthington, Minn.), 1-2-2-4-4-1-(5)-2-4-5-3-3, 31.
470 COMBINED FLEET/Official scoring* (13 boats; 12 of 16 races; 1
discard):
1. Stuart McNay (Lincoln, Mass.)/Graham Biehl (San Diego),
2-2-2-2-1-2-4-1-(6)-4-2-1, 23 points;
2. Amanda Clark (Shelter Island, N.Y.)/Sarah Mergenthaler (New York, N.Y.),
4-3-1-(6)-3-3-2-4-1-5-1-6, 33;
3. Mikee Anderson-Mitterling (Coronado, Calif.)/David Hughes (San Diego),
5-1-6-3-4-4-1-5-5-(7)-5-4, 43.
*--For purpose of selecting Olympic representatives.
For complete information on the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team Trials -
Sailing, please visit
www.ussailing.org/olympics/OlympicTrials.
Video from the event with commentary by Gary Jobson will be available daily
on the website of the NBC network at
www.NBCOlympics.com.
About the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team Trials - Sailing
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team Trials - Sailing are managed by US
SAILING and hosted by several sailing organizations. Racing takes place
October 6 through October 14 with a rest day scheduled at each venue. The
highest eligible finisher in each class will be nominated by US SAILING to
the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) to the 2008 U.S. Olympic or Paralympic
Team - Sailing. The events on the West Coast are hosted by Alamitos Bay
Yacht Club (470 Men & Women, RS:X Men & Women), California Yacht Club
(Star), Newport Harbor Yacht Club (Finn), San Diego Yacht Club (Tornado),
and Southwestern Yacht Club (49er). On the East Coast, the Rhode Island
Sailing Foundation in Newport (R.I.) is host to the Laser, Laser Radial,
2.4mR, SKUD-18, and Sonar events.
About US SAILING
The United States Sailing Association (US SAILING) is the national
governing body for sailing. Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Portsmouth,
Rhode Island, the organization provides leadership for the sport of sailing
in the United States. US SAILING offers training and education programs for
instructors and race officials, supports a wide range of sailing
organizations and communities, issues offshore rating certificates, and
provides administration and oversight of competitive sailing across the
country, including National Championships and the U.S. Olympic and
Paralympic Sailing Teams. For more information, please visit
www.ussailing.org.