US SAILING’s 2010 Rolex Miami OCR: National Pride at Stake for World’s Best Olympic and Paralympic Sailors

(From the US Sailing website:www.ussailing.org)

Portsmouth, R.I. (January 20, 2010) – The world’s best Olympic and Paralympic sailors are counting down the days to US SAILING’s 2010 Rolex Miami OCR, the second of seven stops of the 2009-2010 International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Sailing World Cup and this year’s first showcase for the major talents looking to represent their countries at the 2012 Olympic/Paralympic Games in Weymouth, England. The event kicks off Sunday, January 24, with six days of racing beginning on Monday. This event annually draws elite sailors from around the world, and this year is no different: Approximately 650 registered sailors from 44 nations are ready to battle for medals on Miami’s Biscayne Bay.

“Our athletes on the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) have spent a lot of hours training and competing over the winter leading up to this event, and I know their hard work will pay off,” said High Performance Director Kenneth Andreasen (Tampa, Fla.). “We’ll see some tough competition across the fleets, so this will be a good test to see where our athletes stand -- and assess where they need to improve in order to win medals at the 2012 Games.”

The Rolex Miami OCR is not only an elite international competition but also an especially important regatta for American sailors hoping to qualify for the 2010 US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, which annually distinguishes the top sailors in each Olympic and Paralympic class.

Andreasen and Olympic Coach Luther Carpenter (LaPorte, Texas) pointed to some of the American stand-outs, including 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) who has transitioned from single-handed fleet racing to skippering a Women’s Match Racing team of Molly Vandemoer (Redwood City, Calif.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) in the new Elliott 6m. Women’s Match Racing will make its debut as an Olympic event at the 2012 Games. Tunnicliffe, who dominated the Laser Radial class over the past several years, is the current ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year and was just named US SAILING’s Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year for the second year in a row, as well as US SAILING’s SportsWoman of the Year for the second year in a row.

“Anna knows what it takes,” said Carpenter. “She’s a strong athlete with an experienced team.”

USSTAG’s Genny Tulloch (San Francisco, Calif.) and 2008 Olympian Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.) will also skipper teams in the Elliott 6m, competing against 22 other teams, including those from France (skipper Claire Leroy is a 2007 and ’08 match racing world champion), Great Britain (skipper Lucy MacGregor was the winner of the recent Busan Cup), Sweden (skipper Anna Kjellberg was a bronze medalist at the ’09 ISAF Women’s Match Racing Worlds), and The Netherlands (skipper Renee Groeneveld with crew Annemieke Bes and Brechtje van der Werf won Sail for Gold in 2009, while a second skipper Mandy Mulder was NED’s 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist in the Yngling).

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The Rolex Miami OCR hosts the same 10 Olympic and three Paralympic classes chosen for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions. At the same time, it closely replicates the format and feel of what sailors can expect at those regattas. The classes 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 Elliott 6m (women), 2.4mR (open, able and disabled), SKUD18 (mixed, disabled) and Sonar (open, disabled).

The Rolex Opening Ceremony takes place at Coral Reef Yacht Club on Sunday, January 24. Staggered-start racing is scheduled for Monday through Friday in all Olympic and Paralympic classes. For fleet racing in the Olympic classes, the event will include a double-point medal race on Saturday. The top ten finishers in the opening series of each event will advance to the medal race. Competitors in the Paralympic classes will have five days of fleet racing and no medal race. For the six-day women’s match racing event, the regatta will consist of an opening series, a knockout series, and a sail-off for boats not advancing to the knockout series.

Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic event on Saturday, January 30, at the Rolex Awards and Closing Ceremony at Coral Reef Yacht Club.

Regatta Headquarters will be 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, the University of Miami Hospital will provide on-site medical care during the event.

In addition to title sponsor Rolex Watch U.S.A., US SAILING’s 2010 Rolex Miami OCR is also sponsored by AlphaGraphics, Atlantis WeatherGear, Sperry Top-Sider, Harken, Team McLube, and the University of Miami Hospital.

A complete roster can be viewed at the event web site, rmocr.ussailing.org, where real-time regatta results, photos and updates will be posted daily once racing begins. Video highlights, produced by T2Productions, will air Wednesday through Saturday and can be viewed on the event web site. Fans can also visit the Facebook fan page and Twitter page.