Sailing at Rio 2016 Day 1: Windsurfers and Lasers get racing underway
by Mark Jardine 8 Aug 2016 22:32 BST
8-18 August 2016
The Olympic Sailing Competition started on Monday with racing in the Men's and Women's RS:X classes, the Laser and the Laser Radial classes.
Nick Dempsey of Great Britain got off to a great start in the Men's RS:X class, going hard left on the first beat to round the windward mark first and lead all the way to the finish with Byron Kokkalanis from Greece 2nd and China's Chun Leung Michael Cheng 3rd.
On the RS:X Women's course Charline Picon from France took the race 1 win from Russia's Stefaniya Elfutina. British sailor Bryony Shaw was 7th with USA's Marion Lepert 10th.
The Pão de Açúcar course area is heavily influenced by Sugarloaf Mountain and, once again, it was the left hand side of the racecourse that paid heavily. A perfect windward mark layline call in race 2 saw Nick lead again with the chasing pack suffering from a drop in wind strength. Dempsey, competing at his 5th Olympics, continued to pull away from the pack to win by 24 seconds, again over Greek sailor Byron Kokkalanis and London 2012 gold medallist Dorian van Rijsselberghe 3rd.
Italy's Flavia Tartaglini won the second Women's RS:X race of the day with France's Charline Picon 2nd and USA's Marion Lepert 3rd. Britain's Bryony Shaw won't be happy with her 20th in this race.
In the final Men's RS:X race of the day, the Netherland's Dorian van Rijsselbeghe overhauled Britain's Nick Dempsey to deny him a clean-sweep of wins on the first day.
In the Women's RS:X fleet Charline Picon rounded off her superb day with a win ahead of Spain's Marina Alabau Neira in 2nd and Russia's Stefaniya Elfutina in 3rd. Britain's Bryony Shaw finished 9th.
On the Escola Naval course, right next door to the RS:X class and sometimes overlapping, the Men's Laser and Women's Laser Radial classes were racing with around 12 knots of wind, a short chop and a strong current against the fleet upwind.
In the Men's Laser class Croatia's Tonci Stipanovic won ahead of Russia's Sergei Komissarov and the Netherland's Rutger van Schaardenburg 3rd. Britain's Nick Thompson finished 8th (after rounding the first windward mark 26th), Ireland's Finn Lynch 14th, Australia's Tom Burton 17th, New Zealand's Sam Meech 19th and USA's Charlie Buckingham 20th. Many were expecting a high scoring regatta in the Laser fleet and the race one results suggest that will be the case.
In the Women's Radial class Ireland's Annalise Murphy won the first race, followed by Belgium's Evi Van Acker 2nd and London 2012 gold medallist, China's Lijia Xu 3rd. Australia's Ashley Stoddard finish 8th, Canada's Brenda Bowskill 9th, Britain's Alison Young 13th and USA's Paige Railey 15th.
The second Men's Laser race saw home favourite Robert Scheidt take the win ahead of Argentina's Julio Alsogaray in 2nd and New Zealand's Sam Meech 3rd. USA's Charlie Buckingham finished 7th, Australia's Tom Burton 8th, Britain's Nick Thompson 17th and Ireland's Finn Lynch 28th.
Robert Scheidt's wife Gintare from Lithunia made it a great end to the couple's day as she won the second Women's Radial race, followed by Paige Railey in 2nd and Croatia's Tina Mihelic third. Australia's Ashley Stoddard finished 7th, Ireland's Annalise Murphy 14th and the reigning World Champion Alison Young was back in 18th.
So after the first day Nick Dempsey will be the happiest man in the boat park with his 1,1,2 score line in the Men's RS:X and Charline Picon the happiest woman after recording a similar 1,2,1 in the Women's RS:X fleet.
In the Lasers many of the favourites have already picked up some big numbers in their results but Croatia's Tonci Stipanović has been the most consistent with a 1st and a 5th today.
Read all the Rio 2016 news, see the schedule and find useful links at www.yachtsandyachting.com/rio2016