Medemblik, Holland
May 23, 2008

After a shaky first race here today on the IJsselmeer, I followed up with two first place finishes to take back the overall lead in the Laser Radial Class at the Delta Lloyd Regatta 2008. Gintare Volungeviciute from Lithuania who was the fleet leader yesterday is now two points back in second place.

Today I sailed in the Blue Fleet for the last three races of the qualifying series. The conditions were similar to the past two days with winds from the northeast ranging from 7-12 knots. The first race of the day, I had a great start, but was down at the pin half of the line and the wind favored the right side of the course for the first beat. Because of that, I rounded the weather mark in about 13th, only to lose another six boats downwind. I did gain them back on the second beat and then passed five more on the downwind leg to finish eighth.

The next two races couldn’t have gone much better really. I had two great starts, held out to the left side of the course and when the time was right to tack and cross the fleet, I did. In race two of the day, I was second around the weather mark and moved into first on the downwind leg. In the last race, I rounded first and extended from there.

Overall I am pretty happy with my performance. With the help of my coaches, I have been working on some defined elements of my sailing and it all seems to be going well. I’ve also been focusing on potentially silly mistakes too, to try and eliminate them so that they won’t be a problem at the Olympics.

Tomorrow we finally have some good breeze forecast just in time for the Gold Fleet racing. There will be three Gold Fleet races tomorrow starting at 10:00 am. We’ll finish with a Medal Race on Sunday. 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.