Skandia Sail for Gold - Weymouth and Portland, Great Britain
The storm was building to its peak as the athletes left Skandia Sail for Gold on Thursday afternoon, and overnight it blasted Weymouth and Portland with winds in excess of fifty knots.
Waves broke over the famous Chesil Bank, the rain poured down and the venue was cleared in case of flooding. Welcome to the British summer.
By Friday morning the wind had not abated calling an early end to the Paralympic regatta. The other classes had longer to wait, but at 14:30 racing was called off for the day for everyone. The silver fleets and those that didn’t make the gold fleet cut for the medal race joined the Paralympians in packing up. Tomorrow, the top ten in each Olympic class will race for gold, silver and bronze.
Looking ahead, there is lots of anticipation for the Medal Race day tomorrow, all the classes are still wide open, some are desperately tight, no-one is guaranteed gold and very few are guaranteed a medal. The action starts early for the Match Racing Women – the intention is for them to begin at 08:00 BST, and they have plenty of sailing to do; quarter finals, semis and finals still to be raced. The rest of the classes start at 10:00 with the Lasers up first, follow it all with live tracking, audio commentary and the blog on the website.
Teams competing:
Anna Tunnicliffe, Molly Vandemoer, Debbie Capozzi - USA [ISAF Ranking = 1]
Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush, Kate Macgregor - GBR [2]
Claire Leroy, Elodie Bertrand, Marie Riou - FRA [3]
Ekaterina Skudina, Elena Siuzeva, Elena Oblova - RUS [4]
Silja Lehtinen, Silja Kanerva, Mikaela Wulff - FIN [5]
Tamara Echegoyen, Angela Pumariega, Sofía Toro - ESP [7]
Renee Groeneveld, Annemiek Bes, Marcelien Bos-De Koning - NED [11]
Olivia Price, Nina Curtis, Lucinda Whitty - AUS [13]
Silke Hahlbrock, Vera Dubina, Irina Lotsmanova - GER [17]
Rita Gonçalves, Mariana Lobato, Diana Neves - POR [20]
Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt - NZL [21]
Lotte Meldgaard, Susanne Boidin, Tina Gramkov - DEN [23]
Anna Kjellberg, Malin Källström, Lotta Harrysson - SWE [25]
ISAF Sailing World Cup Website : www.sailing.org/worldcup/home.php
Skandia Sail for Gold Website : www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk