Sailing at Rio 2016 Day 5: 49erFX Olympic debut, Silver for Dempsey
by Mark Jardine 12 Aug 2016 22:45 BST
8-18 August 2016
Day five didn't get off to the best of starts with all the Guanabara Bay courses postponed due to lack of wind and the first ocean races started, but then abandoned due to massive windshifts and holes in the breeze.
Scheduled for the day were the first 3 races for the Men's 49er on the Pão de Açúcar course and the Women's 49erFX on the Aeroporto course, races 5 & 6 for the 470 Men & Women on the Escola Naval course, races 7 & 8 for the Men's Laser and Women's Laser Radial on the Copacabana course and the final 3 races on the Niterói course for the RS:X Men & Women ahead of their Sunday Medal Races. Remember it was the Copacabana and Niterói ocean courses which had such huge waves on 'Brutal Thursday'.
After an 1h30m delay, racing started on the ocean courses with the RS:X Women and Laser Radial Women away first.
Women's Laser Radial
On the Copacabana course it was Lucía Falasca from Argentina who took the win in race 7 of the Women's Laser Radial event ahead of Manami Doi from Japan with Sweden's Josefin Olsson third. Great Britain's Alison Young finished 7th, Canada's Brenda Bowskill 10th, but overnight leader Annalise Murphy was back in 18th and the USA's Paige Railey finished 26th.
Race 8 was won by Japan's Manami Doi ahead of Belgium's Evi van Acker with Saint Lucia's Stephanie Lovell 3rd. Britain's Alison Young finished 10th, Australia's Ashley Stoddart 11th & Ireland's Annalise Murphy 12th.
Overall this has pushed Denmark's Anne-Marie Rindom to the top of the leaderboard ahead of the Netherlands' Marit Bouwmeetster and Ireland's Annalise Murphy has dropped to third. Britain's Alison Young is up one place to 9th while USA's Paige Railey has dropped to 11th and Australia's Ashley Stoddard is 13th.
Men's Laser
In the Men's Laser class Philipp Buhl from Germany won race 7, climbing from 14th at the windward mark. Jesper Stalheim from Sweden finished 2nd ahead of France's Jean Baptiste Bernaz. Australia's Tom Burton finished 7th, New Zealand's Sam Meech 13th, USA's Charlie Buckingham 15th with Great Britain's Nick Thompson back in 24th.
Italy's Francesco Marrai won race 8 ahead of Australia's Tom Burton with Sweden's Jesper Stalheim 3rd. New Zealand's Sam Meech finished 6th, just ahead of Britain's Nick Thompson with USA's Charlie Buckingham 10th.
Overall Croatia's Tonci Stipanović leads, Brazil's Robert Scheidt is 2nd, Australia's Tom Burton is 3rd and Britain's Nick Thompson is 4th, but the points are high and tight so anything could happen and realistically anyone in the top ten is still in with a shout for a medal.
Women's RS:X
Race 10 in the RS:X Women saw China's Peina Chen win ahead of the Netherland's Lilian De Geus with Russia's Stefania Elfutina third and Britain's Bryony Shaw 4th. USA's Marion Lepert was disqualified after being on course side at the start.
Men's RS:X
In the RS:X Men, Dorian van Russelberghe won yet another race ahead of France's Pierre le Coq and Italy's Mattia Camboni. Britain's Nick Dempsey finished 5th.
Van Russelberghe went on to win race 11 with Dempsey 7th, nearly wrapping up the gold medal for the Dutchman ahead of the medal race on Sunday with an 18 point lead. It wasn't all bad news for Dempsey as he also had an 18 point lead over world champion Piotr Myszka from Poland in 3rd.
Race 12 saw the first sailing medals of Rio 2016 were wrapped up as Dorian Van Russelberghe confirmed his gold as Nick Dempsey finished the race in 8th place, confirming Silver in the process.
Men's 49er
After nearly 3 hours wait, the first of the 49er races started after a decent 12 knot breeze filled in from 230 degrees. Red-hot favourites are Kiwis Peter Burling and Blair Tuke who took the silver medal at London 2012. Their great rivals Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen from Australia, who won gold at London 2012 have had to pay second fiddle to Burling and Tuke in every event in the past two years up until the South American Championship where they finally broke the New Zealand team's winning streak.
The tension in the fleet led to a General Recall, but it was all clear on the second attempt. The Danish team of Jonas Warrer & Christian Peter Lübeck led at the windward mark with the fleet splitting downwind. Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who gybed at the windward mark, powered down the run to take the lead in what Ian Walker described as 'an astonishing performance'. The Danish team retook the lead up the beat. All was looking good for the Danish team until a disastrous error saw them miss the leeward gate, gifting the win to Burling & Tuke with Japan's Yukio Makino & Kenji Takahashi 2nd with Portugal's Lukasz Przybytek & Pawel Kolodzinski 3rd. London 2012 gold medallists Nathan Outteridge & Iain Jensen finished 13th, Ireland's Ryan Seaton & Matt Mcgovern finished 14th, just ahead of Britain's Dylan Fletcher & Alain Sign with USA's Thomas Barrows & Joseph Morris 18th.
49er race 2 saw the Irish pair of Ryan Seaton & Matt Mcgovern take the lead down the first run, a position they held until the 3rd beat when the super-fast Kiwi team took the lead, going on to take their second bullet. The Irish team of Ryan Seaton & Matt Mcgovern took second with Germany's Erik Heil & Thomas Ploessel 3rd. Nathan Outteridge & Iain Jensen finished 8th and Britain's Dylan Fletcher & Alain Sign 10th.
Women's 49erFX
The 49erFX managed a single debut race on the Aeroporto course with France's Sarah Steyaert & Aude Compan taking the win ahead of Great Britain's Charlotte Dobson & Sophie Ainsworth with Italy's Giulia Conti & Francesca Clapcich 3rd. Canada's Erin Rafuse & Dannie Boyd finished 5th, New Zealand's Alexandra Maloney & Molly Meech 6th, Ireland's Andrea Brewster & Saskia Tidey 8th with USA's Paris Henken & Helena Scutt 13th.
Men's 470
In the Men's 470 fleet, racing on the Escola Naval course, Great Britain's Luke Patience & Chris Grube pipped Australia's Mat Belcher & Will Ryan to take the race win with Croatia's Sime Fantela & Igor Marenic third. USA's Stuart Mcnay & David Hughes finished 4th with Canada's Jacob & Graeme Chaplin-Saunders 12th and New Zealand's Paul Snow-Hansen & Daniel Willcox 23rd. Overall the Croatian team leads with Australia 2nd and Great Britain moving up to 3rd.
Loads more photos to follow as soon as possible.
Read all the Rio 2016 news, see the schedule and find useful links at www.yachtsandyachting.com/rio2016