The medal race concluded the
youth Olympics event on 25th August 2010. The peculiarity of the this
medal race is that everyone was still racing instead of the traditional
top 10 and the fact it was not discardable added up a little bit of
pressure.
Sophie was fired up in the
morning and determined to do well having reviewed all 11 races and
lessons learnt from them. After a short postponment, the breeze
eventually picked up to a lovely 5-7 kts. Sophie was off to a good start
in the middle of the line but fell rapidly into the leebow of a boat
forcing her to tack onto a header. Off phase for a while she fell right
back. Her second half of the beat she remembered the lessons of the
initial few days and picked the lifted tack towards the lay line.
finding clear air she made her way back up to 17th at the first
windward. No gaps had really opened in the fleet and the downwind speed
she had shown on previous races was giving a lot of hope for a come back
in the spectators stand. She did not disappoint and a superb display of
speed and placement climbed her into 5th by the bottom gate.
unfortunately some specifics of the Byte CII caught up with her when she
did not notice the mainsheet traveller had moved too far to leeward
opening her leech way too much making her lose pointing ability. This
issue forced her onto shaky decisions and she dropped back to 15th by
the second windward. Sophie was not to give up without a fight and she
closed the gap on the group ahead to snatch the inside lane before the 3
boats length rounding the gate in 10th making a further two places on
the reach getting her positioning and angles perfectly right.
She took 8th on the line at
the Youth Olympics medal race to end her event on very positive note!
Skandia Sail for
Gold regatta, 9th-14th August 2010, Weymouth

(photo supplied by
onEdition)
Seven NI sailors competed at the
Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta as part of the ISAF World Cup circuit. A
variety of conditions during the week saw sailors being tested to the
limit. The regatta marks the end of the World Cup series in Europe
before sailors start a long winter training programme in preparation for
2011 when the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Perth, AUS, will mark
the first qualification for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Sail for Gold regatta is an
opportunity for nations to test the Olympic sailing venue and gain some
valuable experience before pre Olympics and Olympic Games
Results:
Lauren Martel, GBR, 21st
Elliot 6m
Stephen Milne, GBR, 27th
Star Fleet
James Espey, IRL, 4th
Silver Fleet, Laser
Chris Penney, IRL, 29th
Bronze Fleet, Laser
Tiffany Brien, IRL, 4th
Silver Fleet, Laser Radial
Matthew McGovern and Ryan
Seaton, IRL 24th 49er