Battling with the breeze as Rio Test Event hits the halfway stage<\/p>\n
Written by RYA | 18 August 2015<\/p>\n
Weather disruptions hit the fourth day of Rio racing<\/p>\n
British Sailing Team Manager Stephen Park described the Rio Olympic Test Event so far as a \u2018week of learning\u2019 as the regatta hit the halfway stage amid a second day of weather disruptions on Tuesday (18 August).<\/p>\n
Light wind conditions once again dogged the 2016 sailing venue, with just a handful of races possible across five of the eight classes originally scheduled to compete on the fourth day of the Aquece Rio International Regatta.<\/p>\n
Event organisers are now playing catch up with the racing schedule in the majority of the ten Olympic classes, with all ten now scheduled to race on Wednesday across the six course areas both inside and outside of Guanabara Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of learning going on from a lot of sailors and it\u2019s been a very challenging week for sailors from all nations in all classes so far,\u201d explained Park of the testing conditions teams have been experiencing at the 2016 Games venue.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor most people there\u2019s been a real battle with the wind.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sea breeze that we\u2019ve had so far this regatta, and that means it\u2019s been quite different inside and outside the harbour, and also different on the different courses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind has been patchy across the courses and also we\u2019ve been on the turn of the tide a lot of the time in the early afternoon, which means that the course has paid on different parts of the course at different stages of the race.\u00a0 It\u2019s very difficult for sailors to keep track of all of that and execute their best performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cResults for most fleets for most sailors have certainly been up and down, and that\u2019s no different for our team as it is for other top sailors from around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was insufficient wind to race on any of the outside courses once again on Tuesday, but all three courses inside the bay managed to host racing in the mid to late afternoon sea breeze. The 49erFX class managed their two planned races, with Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth posting a 10,14 to sit in overall tenth place.<\/p>\n
Nick Dempsey\u2019s RS:X men\u2019s windsurfing fleet also managed two races, which yielded 14,9 for the double Olympic medallist, who is poised 11th overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cTactically I\u2019m making much better decisions that I was at the beginning of the week, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019m a million miles off,\u201d Dempsey explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just not quite there with the pace so that makes it quite difficult.\u00a0 But it\u2019s alright, I love racing and I\u2019m learning a heap so it\u2019s all relatively positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just one race was possible for the women\u2019s RS:X fleet, with Bryony Shaw picking up a seventh to see her into ninth place overall.<\/p>\n
Alison Young has advanced to third overall in the Laser Radial fleet following a sixth place in the sole planned race for the women\u2019s single-handers, while Nick Thompson is fifth in the tightly contested Laser event.\u00a0 He posted a 15th the class\u2019s only race of the day. The Finn sailors saw none of their three planned races, in spite of sailing out to the Sugarloaf course, while the 470 Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s fleets, due to race outside the bay, never left the shore due to insufficient breeze.<\/p>\n
\u201cTomorrow\u2019s forecast is not fantastic so there\u2019s a good chance we\u2019re going to lose some more races tomorrow.\u00a0 For the last three days of the regatta it\u2019s going to be all on and it\u2019s going to be full speed ahead right to the finish line,\u201d team manager Park continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a British perspective, we\u2019re still in the hunt in most of the classes, and hopefully we\u2019ll see a few of the ones where we\u2019re in the bottom half of the top ten make some progress up towards the medal places by the medal race, and those that are in the top few positions consolidate those positions and get themselves in a position ready to challenge to win gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schedule for Wednesday 19 August:<\/p>\n
RS:X Men, P. Acucar 4 Races 1310<\/p>\n
RS:X Women, P. Acucar 4 Races 1300<\/p>\n
Laser,\u00a0 Copacabana 2 Races 1310<\/p>\n
Laser Radial, Copacabana 2 Races 1300<\/p>\n
Finn, Niteroi 3 Races 1300<\/p>\n
470 Men, Pai 2 Races 1300<\/p>\n
470 Women, Pai 2 Races 1310<\/p>\n
49er, Ponte 3 Races 1300<\/p>\n
49erFX, Escola Naval 3 Races 1500<\/p>\n
Nacra 17, Escola Naval 3 Races 1300<\/p>\n
Competition at the Aquece Rio International Regatta continues from 1300 on Wednesday (19 August), with final medal races scheduled for the RS:X windsurfing events on Thursday (20 August); Laser, Laser Radial, 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 on Friday (21 August); Finn, 470 Men and 470 Women on Saturday (22 August).<\/p>\n
via Battling with the breeze as Rio Test Event hits the halfway stage | Home | News | The British Sailing Team | RYA<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Battling with the breeze as Rio Test Event hits the halfway stage Written by RYA | 18 August 2015 Weather disruptions hit the fourth day of Rio racing British Sailing Team Manager Stephen Park described the Rio Olympic Test Event … Continue reading