We were due to start our short Medal Race at 1100 hours but these were Qingdao conditions and not even enough for a start. The clouds broke up soon after and we started half an hour later in four to five knots of northeasterly breeze.

I knew my Silver Medal was pretty secure. There would be a match race for the Bronze Medal between Karin Soderstrom from Sweden and Penny Clark from Great Britain who were only one point apart in third and fourth places. They were going to take care of each other and I didn’t have to worry too much about them. The only thing I could do to win the Gold was win the race and hope that Paige placed ninth or tenth.

At the start I was over early along with four other boats, including Paige. I restarted, hitched out to the rite and set out in pursuit, closing up on the pack and rounding the top mark in eighth.

My downwind leg was really good and I picked up several boats. As I headed down to the lee mark I noticed clouds clearing on the left hand side of the course, so I tacked and went left as soon as I rounded. The fleet seemed determined to play other games but I got more pressure than the others and led them around the top mark.

Photo: Dan Nerney/Rolex

Full results are available at 2008 Rolex OCR Radial Results. I would like to thank my sponsors Carmeuse and K-Swiss for  their continued support of my campaign for the Olympic Gold Medal in Beijing 2008.

Sail hard,
Anna