Day six preview – Windsurfers back in action
Day six of the Olympic sailing regatta in Qingdao (Thursday 14 August) will see windsurfers Nick Dempsey and Bryony Shaw resume their quest for gold.
Dempsey, who celebrated his 28th birthday on Wednesday (13 August), currently lies in fifth place overall and will be looking to build on his strong performance from Tuesday, where he posted 3,2 , to boost him into the podium positions heading into the second half of the regatta.
Bryony Shaw, who won the Olympic Test Event in Qingdao last year, is also poised in fifth place in the women’s RS:X fleet, and will be eager to repeat her solid opening day performance to push her closer to the top spots. China’s Athens silver medallist Jian Yin heads resumes racing in the women’s windsurfing fleet with a nine-point advantage at the top of the leaderboard.
Ben Ainslie and the Yngling girls head back out to course E for the last schedule day of fleet racing ahead of the medal race on Saturday, and will be looking to gain as much advantage as possible heading into the final double-points scoring showdown.
For Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes in the 49er event, Thursday will be an exercise in damage limitation. While the Exmouth boys have seen their medal hopes slide after suffering four big scores in their nine races so far, they will be looking to boost their way up the leaderboard in their remaining races, and hope that the pressure of the Games will force some errors among the leading contenders.
Penny Clark and Paul Goodison will take to the water for races four and five in the Laser Radial and Laser events, while the 470 men’s and women’s crews enjoy a rest day.
Racing gets underway at 1300 (local time) on Thursday, as follows:
Course A: 49er (3 races)
Course B: RS:X men and women (2 races each)
Course C: Laser and Laser Radial (2 races each)
Course E: Finn and Yngling (2 races each)
You can follow the racing online at www.rya.org.uk/beijing2008, where you will get updates from the dinghy park and the results as they come in, as well as the news from the Team GB camp. You can also leave messages of support for the team and your comments on the racing and Team GB’s prospects.
