| Second After Two Days at Medemblik | | Print | |
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Medemblik, Holland I’m in second place overall after two days intense competition in the Laser Radial Class at the Delta Lloyd Regatta 2008 on the IJsselmeer in Medemblik, Holland, and just one point off first place. Yesterday after three races I was first overall. Lisa Ross from Canada, and Tania Calles Elias from Mexico arrived while I was out sailing and the next day we started training together. Tania is all healed up from her injury and is fine shape again – definitely going fast. During the next couple of days of training, the sun finally appeared but the wind was still from the north keeping the temperatures down. The training was excellent, exactly what I needed going into this regatta. US Team Head Coach, Gary Bodie is coaching me for this event. I’m very excited to have him here because it is a good opportunity to get an extra perspective and to work on my overall race game. On Day One we were greeted with a fresh northeasterly breeze around 12-13 knots and temperatures around 12C. We’re racing here in split fleets. I had three very good starts in my fleet that led to three very good results. I finished the day with a 1-1-2 to end the first day first overall. By winning I also qualified to sail in the "Champions Race" that evening. This is an inshore race in Mini 12’s for the top sailor in each class, raced each evening, with a prize of 200 Euros. We sailed heats in which the last place finisher each time was eliminated. I was winning my race on the first lap of the twice-around windward leeward course but had problems steering my boat at the second weather mark. I’m blaming it on the boat as it was really hard to steer, but it could quite easily have been my inability to control two sails and steer a boat at the same time. Needless to say, I was eliminated first. This wasn’t such a bad thing however, as I got to go home and eat my dinner and go to bed. Day Two of competition started out much the same as Day One but with slightly less breeze all day. My first race I had a great start again, and sailed well to finish in 4th. The next race, I had another good start, but the girl who won the pin end of the line, tacked to cross the fleet and then tacked back right in front of me, so I had to tack away and scramble. I had a chance to place myself back in the top eight, but I missed in trying to get too greedy on a shift and rounded the first mark in 15th. I hovered around there the whole race and finished 13th. In the last race, I won the pin end and defended my left side well. Two boats that were farther right than me were ahead of me at the first mark, but I managed to gain one of them back on the first downwind to finish second. Luckily, we now have a drop counting for the regatta, so I don’t have to count my 13th. In the other fleet, Gintare Volungeviciute from Lithuania had a 1-2-1 to take the overall Radial lead. In my fleet, Tina Mihelic from Croatia had a great day with a 2-1-1, so one of the two will sail the "Champions Race" tonight and hopefully do a better job than me. Tomorrow we have three more races in the qualifying series before we go to the gold/silver fleets for racing on Saturday. You can find full results from this regatta at Delta Lloyd Results. As always I want to acknowledge my sponsors Carmeuse and K-Swiss for supporting my campaign for Olympic Gold in Qingdao. Sail hard |
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