Medal Race

Does anyone know why the Stars had a dead downwind finish and the Finns had a port hand rounding and a short reach? I think the Finn course was more tactical as it allows you more scope to get yourself on the inside at the mark, this gives you a better opportunity to attack/defend and hence makes it more tactical. The Star course takes some of the tactics out of it and introduces an element of luck (which clearly wasn’t on Iain/Bart's side). I think there were at least 3 Star races with photo finishes which I think reinforces my point.

Originally posted by Chris 249 The concept and execution seem to be completely flawed.   It seems that there has not been any analysis of ratings or spectator figures for Medal Races compared to normal races, so ISAF don't know whether or not the Medal Race has the effect it's meant to. One ISAF person remarked recently that the crowds on teh Nothe seemed to show that it worked, but with respect that can't be all that significant since the live audience is tiny compared to the TV audience. Secondly, no one has tried to work out how many people would have been there had there been no medal race.   It looked as though both events were going to go to the host country and one of the locals was going to set a record for medals - of course there were going to be healthy crowds, no matter whether the medal race concept was in place or not. A quick glance at the IOC broadcasting report shows conclusively that people from a country will watch the finals where they hope to win.   Sure, all figures would be rubbery in any such analysis, but it's bizarre that ISAF has made a major change without trying to work out whether it was a success.   And the basic idea (IIRC) was that people couldn't understand a contest where the winner didn't win the last race. That's completely nuts, look at F1 (where you can win the worlds months when you have been dead for months, as Rindt proved years ago), the Premier League (?) and Tour de France.  It looks like some of the world's greatest sporting events can be won by those who don't win the last round, so it's obviously no problem if sailing does the same.

I think one of the main reasons for the medal race was to force the series leader if sail the final race rather than DNC in the final race if their score allowed.

Originally posted by Medway Maniac Originally posted by ASok Its that media friendliness and commerce that keeps funding pushed into the sport. Unfortunately its something you've just got to deal with. I've just got to deal with?  Just what does that funding do for me or the sport?   Does anyone enjoy doing it more because of the funding than Elvstrom and Co. did years ago?  I very much doubt it.   More likely if anything they just feel more pressure.  OK, the funding makes it all seem 'bigger' and more show-biz, but what does that have to do with the participants enjoying their sport?   Money invariably corrupts anything it's connected with.

The concept and execution seem to be completely flawed.

Edited by Chris 249 - 06 Aug 12 at 7:29am

The whole "Medal Race" system is perverse. The whole point of holding a an extended regatta series with discards is surely to try and eliminate any unfairness due to the vagaries of the wind conditions. Shoving a double-points non-discardable race onto the end of the series totally contradicts the whole idea.

It would be fairer just to have a 3 or 5 race series and be done with it, and surely any spectators with an ounce of interest would be capable of understanding the concept?

In this instance the combination of this and the use of an inshore course that was always going to give fluky winds just turns the whole thing into little more than a lottery. Today's medal races were an absolute farce, especially after the quality of racing we've enjoyed out in the bay earlier in the week.

Some serious questions need to be asked of the organisers on behalf of Team GB. Far from playing "home advantage" we seem to have gone to great lengths to undermine our own team. Given that we have arguably the strongest team in the regatta the very last thing we needed was to deliberately introduce this element of randomness into the results.

It's clearly cost us one gold medal so far; and in all fairness Ainslie was extremely lucky to get away with it - how many more sailors will get cheated of medals before the regatta ends?