US Sailing Team at the Ready Steady Tokyo test event - Day 2
by US Sailing Team 18 Aug 2019 14:38 BST
15-22 August 2019
Chris Barnard, US Sailing Team Men's Laser - Ready Steady Tokyo day 2 © Pedro Martinez / Sailing Energy / World Sailing
After a brief postponement this morning, all fleets managed to complete at least one race day two of Ready Steady Tokyo - Sailing, the official test event for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Today's conditions differed significantly from yesterday's winds and waves. Sailors lined up in light-medium breeze that clocked from the east to the southerly sea breeze direction throughout the afternoon.
U.S. Men's Laser athlete, Chris Barnard (Newport Beach, Calif.), fared well in his fleet's only race of the day. In his words, today brought, "one race, one bullet." Thanks to a clean start leaving him with plenty of opportunities to make some good tactical decisions, Barnard finished the race in first-place. He now stands in seventh place overall in the Men's Laser fleet.
While Barnard is trailing in the U.S. Olympic trials, he's not letting that stop him from enjoying the event and making the most of the experience. "Sailing here at the Olympic venue in the conditions that I think 2020 will offer has been great so far. Obviously, it's a smaller fleet and while it isn't as deep, all the top guys from each country are here, so it's a really cool experience," he said. "We're also lucky to have a great team environment here. A lot of the U.S. athletes are staying as a team, so there's been a lot of good camaraderie. All in all, the event has been really enjoyable so far."
Stu McNay (Providence, R.I.) and Dave Hughes (Miami, Fla.) also moved up the leaderboard after a solid race today. The pair finished sixth in the only Men's 470 race of the day and will advance to eighth overall. Also in the top-ten, Erika Reineke (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) stands in sixth-place. Despite a deep finish in the only Women's Laser Radial race of the day, she will drop today's score of 32 points and will only slide back one place from yesterday's ranking.
Reineke also remains the highest placed American boat. Just outside the top-ten, Steph Roble (East Troy, Wisc.) and Maggie Shea (Wilmette, Ill.) are in twelfth place in the Women's 49erFX fleet and Luke Muller (Fort Pierce, Fla.), is in 13th place in the Men's Finn class.
Racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow with every start scheduled for 12:00 or 12:10, local time.
Ready Steady Tokyo Sailing - U.S. Results after Day 2:
Men's 470 - Stu McNay (Providence, R.I.) and Dave Hughes (Miami, Fla.), 8th
Women's 470 - Nikole Barnes (Miami, Fla.) and Lara Dallman-Weis (Shoreview, Minn.), 19th
Men's Laser - Chris Barnard (Newport Beach, Calif.), 7th
Men's Laser - Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.), 18th
Women's Laser Radial - Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.), 19th
Women's Laser Radial - Erika Reineke (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), 6th
Men's 49er - Andrew Mollerus (Larchmont, N.Y.) and Ian MacDiarmid (Delray Beach, Fla.), 18th
Women's 49erFX - Stephanie Roble (East Troy, Wisc.) and Maggie Shea (Wilmette, Ill.), 12th
Men's RS:X - Pedro Pascual (West Palm Beach, Fla.), 20th
Women's RS:X - Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md.), 18th
Men's Finn - Luke Muller (Fort Pierce, Fla.), 13th
Mixed Nacra 17 - Riley Gibbs (Long Beach, Calif.) and Anna Weis (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), 20th