Qingdao China - August 16, 2008 - I sailed another solid race today in typical quirky Qingdao conditions and added a sixth to my pattern of consistent good finishes. However the discard rule kicked in after our race today and the scoreboard landscape altered as two of my major competitors dropped high-point scores and moved up to first and second places.

For now at least I’m in third place overall with 20 points. The new lead Radial sailor has 10 points, while the second-placed boat has 13 points. I got a little amped-up after finishing today. It’s little frustrating to see others take a chance and get lucky but I know we’ve only reached the half-way point and there’s a long way to go if we sail the full ten-race schedule.

We were out on Course C on time today, with three races scheduled, and ready to sail the outer trapezoid course, starting at noon. There was breeze too, out of the north but it petered away and started switching so we went on hold. Just before 1:00 pm it steadied somewhat to about 8-9 knots from the southeast and we had a start.

I had a good start and elected to play the middle right of the course. Half way up the first beat I looked really good versus the fleet to the left and behind me and I began to anticipate rounding the top mark in the top four. Then the right started pumping more pressure, so I edged over that way to consolidate. I was in sixth and still in good shape when the breeze went back and a little bunch of boats came out of the left. When I rounded, I was in ninth place.

I passed one boat and lost one boat on the run, but most importantly I got back in touch with the lead pack as I rounded the leeward mark still in ninth. On the second beat I did OK but started struggling in my lane of breeze and lost a couple of boats. The current had switched from ebb to flood tide and we compressed into the mark, finding it a bit of a struggle to get around. However I moved up to seventh place rounding the mark, only to lose ground again on the reach.

I was ninth starting the last run but shifted a gear and sailed a really good leg, reeling in three boats to finish the race in sixth place.

We’re scheduled for three races tomorrow, starting at noon, together with a forecast promising some stable breeze.

I will be sending out daily reports like this but you can also follow the racing live on web-TV at www.nbcolympics.com. You can get leg-by-leg race updates and overall results if you go to http://www.sailing.org/olympics/resultscentre.php and click on Laser Radial Women in the left-hand column.

Until the Olympics are over, you’ll notice some changes in the content of my reports and where they are located on my website. To comply with International Olympic Committee regulations designed to protect its sponsors’ interests, my reports are appearing on my special Qingdao Olympic Blog. The URL for the page is http://www.annatunnicliffe.com/content/blogcategory/29/113/. There is also a link from the home page of my website. The blog page includes hotlinks to official results and competition photos.

Sail hard

Anna