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ROLEX MIAMI OLYMPIC CLASSES REGATTA

Miami OCR: Heavy Lifting in Light Air

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It started out a perfect day on Biscayne Bay, with sunshine and 12 knots of breeze, but those conditions gave way to struggling light winds by late afternoon, when several of the ten Olympic and three Paralympic classes at the Rolex Miami OCR regatta were trying to finish opening day races.  The six-day event is the second of seven ISAF Sailing World Cup regattas and the only one of those to be sailed in North America.  In its 23rd edition, it is hosting 529 sailors from 41 countries sailing on 354 boats.
Canada’s David Wright took two first-place finishes in the Laser Blue Fleet, putting him in second place overall and three points ahead of his prime competitor Chris Dold.  Dold, in third place overall (behind GBR’s Paul Goodison) with a 2-3 today in the Yellow fleet, is duking it out with Wright for Canada’s berth at the London 2012 Olympic Games.  
“This is the second part of our Olympic championship qualifiers, and he (Dold) is leading me by three places, so I have to outperform him,” said Wright, adding that Dold was in a different fleet from him today, because the Laser numbers were so large (78) they had to be split into two racing groups, then combined again for the purpose of overall scoring. “When we are in a split fleet like that we have to just make sure to finish with little points. I did it today, so hopefully I can do it again tomorrow.”
“It was a good day—light, but good,” said Chris Dold adding that he has been training against Wright for about five years. “I’m excited and sticking to my guns; if there’s any match racing between us it’s going to be later on in the week.”
One team who doesn’t have to worry about snagging an Olympic berth is Miami’s own Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih, who finished a solid 3-4 today in the Star class to take second overall on tied points with Sweden’s leader Fredrik Loof/Max Salminen.  They were named to the USA’s 2012 Olympic Sailing Team after they recently finished third in their World Championship.  “This is not a major regatta for us in the same regard, but we definitely want to train and improve our standing in the World Cup,” said Fatih, adding that this will be his first time to the Olympics after four times trying and Mendelblatt’s second (in Laser class).
Fatih said the wind was 8-9 knots at best for today’s Star racing, and he felt badly for the Finn sailors who would “have a tough time” racing—according to the staggered-start schedule—in dying winds on Course D after them. (There are four competition circles, each for multiple classes, and a fifth reserved solely for Women’s Match Racing.)
For Loof/Salminen, today they practiced “no risk” sailing.  “We were not hitting the corners or anything, just one thing at a time,” said Loof, who added that he even wisely held back, but only “a bit,” for the second start, which was black-flagged (meaning any boats over the line prematurely would be disqualified).  “Our two goals were to have good starts and hold the lane for a while to control our own destiny on the first shift.”
In Sonars, the USA’s Paul Callahan (Newport, R.I.)/Tom Brown (Castine, Maine)/Bradley Johnson (Pompano Beach, Fla.) finished 1-3 to finish second overall behind Norway’s Aleksander Wang-Hansen/Marie Solbert/Per Eugen Kristiansen and better their chances of being awarded a Paralympic berth at the conclusion of this regatta.  “It’s one day at a time,” said Callahan, “but we are in an extraordinary groove, sailing extremely confidently, and appear to be peaking just as we planned after hundreds of days of training over the last year.”  Although Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.)/Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.)/Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Maine), also sailing here and currently in third overall, are their rivals for the U.S. berth, Callahan says the 11-boat fleet is so competitive his team needs to keep its eyes on everyone.  “Mainly, though, we just put the boat on the starting line and try to win.”
In the 470 Women’s class, with 16 boats, Great Britain’s Olympic-bound Hannah Mills and crew Saskia Clark battled the light wind and came out on top, taking first in the only race of the day. “The fleet size is similar to what the Olympics will be like, so it’s quite good practice,” said Mills who added that there are a handful of teams competing against her this week who are also qualified for the Olympics. “We came here to do as well as we possibly can and have goals that we want to achieve throughout the week. We are excited to be back in Miami and really love it here.”
US Sailing’s Rolex Miami OCR, established in 1990, is open to boats competing in events chosen for the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. The 10 Olympic classes for 2012 are: Laser Radial (women), Laser (men), Finn (men), Men’s RS:X, Women’s RS:X, 49er (men), Men’s 470, Women’s 470, Star (men) and Elliot 6m (women). The three Paralympic classes are: 2.4mR (open), SKUD (mixed) and Sonar (mixed).
For fleet racing in the Olympic classes, the Rolex Miami OCR consists of a five-day opening series (Monday - Friday) and a double-point medal race (Saturday). The top 10 finishers in the opening series of each class will advance to the medal race. For match racing (Elliott 6m), which makes its debut in the 2012 Olympic Games, the regatta will consist of an opening series, a knockout series, and a sail-off for boats not advancing to the knockout series.  Competitors in the Paralympic classes have five days of fleet racing (Monday-Friday) and no medal race.
Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class on Saturday, January 28.
Regatta Headquarters are located at the US Sailing Center Miami, an official Olympic training center, in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, Fla. Event organizers have partnered with the city of Miami to provide world-class venues for competition. Additional hosts for the event include Coral Reef Yacht Club, Key Biscayne Yacht Club, Coconut Grove Sailing Club, Miami Rowing Club and Shake-a-Leg Miami. These sailing organizations host classes onshore, as well as help run the on-the-water racing. The Coral Reef Yacht Club also hosts the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
In addition to title sponsor Rolex Watch U.S.A., the 2012 Rolex Miami OCR is also sponsored by AlphaGraphics, Sperry Top-Sider, Harken McLube, Kattack, Gowrie-Chubb, Trinity Yachts and the University of Miami Hospital.
A complete roster of competitors can be viewed at the event website http://rmocr.ussailing.org, where real-time racecourse blogging, commentary and fan interaction, regatta results, photos and news updates have been integrated into a live coverage platform. Video highlights produced by T2p.tv and presented by Rolex will air beginning Wednesday, January 25, and will be available on-demand on the event website.  Fans can also follow the event on Facebook/RMOCR and Twitter/RMOCR.
A complete roster of competitors can be viewed at the event website http://rmocr.ussailing.org, where real-time racecourse blogging, commentary and fan interaction, regatta results, photos and news updates have been integrated into a live coverage platform. Video highlights produced by T2p.tv and presented by Rolex will air beginning Wednesday, January 25, and will be available on-demand on the event website.  Fans can also follow the event on Facebook/RMOCR and Twitter/RMOCR.
(end)
(top-three finishes follow)
Sonar (11 boats) – 2 races
1. Paul Callahan (Newport, R.I.)/Tom Brown (Castine, Maine)/Bradley Johnson (Pompano Beach, Fla.) (USA) 1,3 (4)
2.John Robertson/ Hannah Stodel/ Steve Thomas (GBR) 4, 2 (6)
3.Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.)/Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.)/Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Maine) (USA) 6, 1 (7)
Star (30 boats) – 2 races
1.Fredrik Loof/Max Salminen (SWE) 2, 5, (7)
2.Mark Mendelblatt (Miami, Fla.)/ Brian Fatih (Miami, Fla.) (USA) 3,4 (7)
3.Robert Scheidt/Bruno Prada (BRA) 1, 8 (9)
49er (23 boats) – 3 races
1.Erik Storck (Huntington, N.Y.)/Trevor Moore (Naple, Fla.) (USA) 1, 2, 6 (9)
2.Nico Luca Marc Delle Karth/Nikolaus Resch (AUT) 5,4,5 (14)
3.Jon Ladha/Daniel Inkpen (CAN) 3,7,9 (19)
Skud-18 (6 boats) – 2 races
1.Alexandra Rickham/Niki Birrell (GBR) 1, 2 (3)
2.Jennifer French/Jean-Paul Creignou (USA) 2, 3 (5)
3.Daniel Fitzgibbon/Liesl Tesch (AUS) 5, 1 (6)
2.4mR (29 boats) – 2 races
1.Damien Seguin (FRA) 2, 1 (3)
2.Helena Luca (GBR) 9, 2 (11)
3.Megan Pascoe (GBR) 7, 4 (11)
Laser Radial (60 boats) – 2 races
1.Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 1, 2 (3)
2.Danielle Dube (CAN) 2, 5 (7)
3.Charlotte Dobson (GBR) 3, 8 (11)
470 Men (23 boats) – 1 race
1.Sven Coster/Kalle Coster (NED) 1 (1)
2.Panagiotis Mantis/ Pavlos Kagialis (GRE) 2 (2)
3.Mathew Belcher/Malcolm Page (AUS) 3 (3)
470 Women (16 boats) – 1 race
1.Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark (GBR) 1 (1)
2.Lisa Westerhof/Lobke Berkhout (NED) 2 (2)
3.Maria Fernanda Sesto/Consuelo Monsegur (ARG) 3 (3)
Laser (78 boats)-2 races
1.David Wright (CAN) 1, 1 (2)
2.Paul Goodison (GBR) 3, 1 (4)
3.Chris Dold (CAN) 2, 3 (5)
Finn (27 boats) – 1 race
1.Zach Railey (Clearwater, Fla., USA) 1 (1)
2.Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif., USA) 2 (2)
3.Jonas Hogh Christensen (DEN) 3 (3)
RS: X Men (14 boats) –  2 races
1.Nick Dempsey (GBR) 1, 1 (2)
2.Elliot Carney (GBR) 2, 3 (5)
3.Sebastian Wang- Hansen  (NOR) 5, 2 (7)
RS: X Women (12 boats) – 2 races
1.Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md., USA) 2, 1 (3)
2.Demita Vega De Lille (MEX)  1, 2 (3)
3.Carolina Mendelblatt (POR) 3, 3 (6)
Women’s Match Racing
Group A (Only A sailed)

Silja Lehtinen/Silja Kanerva/Mikaela WUlff (FIN) 8-1
Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.)/Elizabeth Kratzig-Burnham (Miami, Fla.),/Alana o'Reilly (Charleston, SC) (USA) 6-0
Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.)/Molly O'Bryan (Stanford, Calif.)/Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) (USA) 6-1
Ekaterina Skudina/Elena Siuzeva/Irina Lotsmanova (RUS) 5-2
Juliana Senfft/Fernanda Decnop/Luciana Kopschitz (BRA) 4-3
Renata Decnop/Gabriela Nicolino/Larissa Juk (BRA) 3-3
Silke Hahlbrock/Maren Hahlbrock/Anlee Lukosch, (GER) 3-4
Nicky Souter/Jessica Eastwell/Katie Spithill (AUS) 3-4
Ru Wang/Pan Ting Ting/Li Xiaoni (CHN) 3-5
Vesna Dekleva Paoli/Katarina Kersevan/Lena Koter (SLO) 2-7
Rita Goncalves/Mariana Lobato/Diana Neves (POR) 1- 6
Jinnie Gordon/Laurel Gordon-Taylor/Catherine Belange (CAN) 0-8

ph. Daniel Forster

24/01/2012 09:24:00 © riproduzione riservata

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