2008 Sailing Olympics Report #10
August 21, 2008
Brute Strength Equals Olympic Sailing Gold
There is nothing better in any sport than a last minute rally to decide a champion. The sailors, and fans watching the Star class on a rainy, blustery day off Qingdao were given quite a treat. The scores were close. Sweden's Frederik Loof held a 2 advantage over Britain's Ian Percy. Each boat beaten is worth two points in the medal race. Sweden would win on a tie because they had more firsts, and wins head to head. The lead would change four times before the finish. And just to add a little more spice to the scenario Brazil's superstar Robert Scheidt was 8 points behind Loof. So here we go.
It was very tough maneuvering before the start in towering waves off the sea wall. Percy is a more experienced match racer and worked Loof into a bad position at the start. GBR was right at the committee boat, Loof was two lengths back, and crossed the line late. To many it looked like it might be over right there. But Loof tacked away, and GBR did not follow. Let me repeat that, GBR did not cover! For a while Loof wanted to tack back to cover GBR from behind, but Portugal blocked his path. The wind shifted to the left and GBR tacked. So far GBR was looking good. And then the inevitable penalty for not covering blew in with the wind suddenly swinging back to the right giving the advantage to Sweden.
Well ahead, Brazil rounded the first mark in the lead. Just 14 seconds later SWE rounds in 5th and GBR 6th. Downwind we go and the Stars start surfing beautifully. Scheidt was a master in the Laser while surfing. His skill earned him 8 World Championships, two Gold and 1 Silver medal in a 10 years. Scheidt worked his Star hard on every wave with the assistance of his crew Bruno Prada. Meanwhile Percy weaved his way through fleet to round the second mark in 2nd, just 12 seconds behind Scheidt. Loof was 5 seconds back in third. Where was this heading?
Back on the wind and all six sailors on the 3 boats started hiking hard. If they had been sumo wrestlers they would have stomped themselves through the floor. Every wave must have felt like torture. The attitude was to just keep hiking, because the other guy would surely cave. But no one gave in. SWE worked the right and slowly ground past GBR. Brazil sailed to the left side, and fell out of the strong wind. Scheidt was dropping fast, and was now in 5th. Percy fell back to 7th.
At the final windward mark BRA, GBR and SWE all rounded within 27 seconds. Meanwhile Poland's double Olympic medalist Mateusz Kusznierewicz took the lead. Could he become the spoiler? As the boats surged forward on every wave the crews trimmed hard for acceleration. Loof started moving up. Percy got stuck in the wind shadow of three trailing boats and was looking for a clear lane.
With 200 yards to the finish a gust propelled every boat. The group behind inched up. On shore several hundred rain soaked fans screamed like crazy. Scheidt passed two boats on a wave careening on the edge of control. Poland crossed first, Brazil third. Out of nowhere Britain planed across in 5th. Unfortunately the pack sailed right by Loof, who finished last. And with that Great Britain clinched the Gold, Brazil a Silver and poor Sweden was lucky to hold on to a Bronze.
Earlier in the day 10 Tornadoes may have sailed their final Olympic race. Spain's Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz Blanko won four races to clinch the Gold medal. For a brief time Australia looked like they might challenge, but the Spanish were two strong. And for my editorial comment I think some form of multihull belongs in the Olympic Games.
On the way back to the harbor the sailors on both the Stars and Tornadoes looked exhausted. A tough physical day is the essence of Olympic sailing. It was an action packed regatta. The numbers tell the tale. In all 117 races were sailed off Qingdao in 11 classes that were won by 69 individual boats. The 33 medals were awarded to 19 countries. Great Britain easily did the best by winning six medals (4 gold). Allowing for one throw out race in each class an average score of 4.3 earned a gold medal, while a 5.9 was good enough for a bronze.
Over the next several months every team will carefully evaluate their performance and plan for the next Games to be sailed off Weymouth, England. In Qingdao the Chinese hosts did a terrific job building the finest sailing facility in the world. And let's not forget about the 20,000 volunteers clearing the racecourse of immense amounts of algae. The wind was challenging as expected. Two days featured powerful winds, and giant confused seas. The rest of the time the wind was light and capricious. But in the end the best sailors prevailed.
