Medal Race - does it make any difference?

Jim Champ has done some analysis of how the results would have worked out if this Olympic Regatta had been scored under the standard system - ie no Medal Race. It seems to make surprisingly little difference.

So does that make the Medal Race redundant, a waste of time? Far from it, in fact quite the opposite, in my opinion. The Medal Race has made the sailing event more media friendly, more appealing to TV producers. So if it does that, without affecting the outcome of the sailing as much as we might have thought, then it is doing a good job all round.

Here's the link to Jim's work.

http://www.devboats.co.uk/olympics08.htm

Regrets, I've had a few

Glenn Ashby's reply to SailJuice, when asked if he had any regrets over not using the Code Zero gennaker: "In a word? No!"

After a very light first week for the Finn and Yngling, the Tornado regatta turned out to be largely a moderate breeze event. Hence the failure of the USA team's Code Zero, which saw them finish in last place overall.

On the subject of regrets, aside from not quite managing to win that elusive gold medal, Darren Bundock's was that he didn't need to diet after all. "All that ice cream and chocoloate we've not been eating for the past six months, we didn't need to worry after all!"

Mitch Booth said this was the windiest Olympics he has competed at. When asked the same question, Bundock agreed. Qingdao wasn't so bad after all. Another welcome case of that favourite sailing cliche: "It's not normally like this!"

Another wet medal ceremony

A shame that the medal ceremony had to take place in the pouring rain again, just as it had on Big Sunday a few days ago. Apparently it's because TV schedules demand it. That's OK, if that's how TV works, so be it. But the word is that the RS-X Men only had a 19-minute, one-lap Medal Race yesterday because of the pressure of TV scheduling. That's when TV starts to encroach a little too far on the sport for my liking, but such is the way of the modern Olympic Games.

Tornado Down - but not yet out

It was a dramatic finale for the Tornado class as it made its exit out of the Olympics after 32 years. With a heavily pin-end-biased line, the fleet would have struggled to start on starboard. So all but one of the 10 boats elected to start on port. There's always one that wants to spoil the party, and this time the exception was Greece, who accelerated across the line and forced all but two of the port tackers to pass behind them.

I didn't get to find out why, but the Greeks weren't to be seen again in the race. But they had an effect on the outcome. The Aussies had struggled to bear away behind the Greeks, it was a big manoeuvre for them. Darren Bundock accidentally released the mainsheet and traveller at the same time, and this left them dead in the water, the boat stalled. By the time the World Champions got going again, they were in bad air and were left with little choice but to tack away towards the shore, past the media centre and the breakwater.

The Australians ploughed a lonely furrow out to the left while their chief rivals, the Spanish, led the fleet out to sea. Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz rounded in the lead, just ahead of the Brits, but the Spanish weren't that quick downwind, and Leigh McMillan and Will Howden led the fleet for the rest of the race. Maybe it was just that ESP had too much to lose and were backing off a little more than others. The Germans, who had an outside shot at the medals, pushed it too hard and paid the price with a race-ending capsize.

Meanwhile the Aussies had got on to the tail of the Spanish and looked in a position to threaten. However they dropped away again up the final beat, as Darren Bundock explained afterwards: "The mast rotator broke and so we couldn't set the mainsail properly so we were a bit slow up that leg." The Spanish pulled away again and finished ahead of Australia, bagging the gold medal.

It was another great Medal Race, one of many that we have seen in the past week. And it was a great send-off for the Tornado. Actually, let hope it's not the last we see of the multihull fleet, but we'll have to see how the politics plays out over the coming months.

49er Gold Medal - Back in the dock

So the Italians and Spanish are pressing ahead with taking the outcome of the 49er medals to court. This from Reuters:

Beijing, 21 August 2008 – The ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has received an application from the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) against two decisions of the International Jury of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) related to the gold medal race of the 49er event which took place on 17 August 2008.

Shortly before the start of the gold medal race in the 49er class event on 17 August 2008, the Danish team (Warrer/Ibsen) was sailing towards the start line when the mast of their boat broke. As a consequence, the Danish team decided to use the boat of another team (Croatia) which had not qualified for the gold medal race. The Danish team finished 7th in the gold medal race and was ranked first in the overall ranking of this event.

The Spanish team, which obtained the silver medal and the Italian team, which was ranked fourth, as well as the Race Committee, filed various protests which were all rejected by the ISAF International Jury. The two NOCs request the CAS to annul the ISAF International Jury decisions, to declare that the Danish team was not entitled to take part in the gold medal race, to disqualify the Danish team and to re-allocate the Olympic medals to the Spanish team (gold medal), to the German team (silver medal) and to the Italian team (bronze medal).

The panel of CAS arbitrators appointed to hear this matter is composed of Dr Stephan Netzle, (Switzerland), President, Prof. Richard McLaren (Canada) and Ms Margarita Echeverria (Costa Rica).

A hearing in this matter will take place on 22 August 2008 at 11.00am. The hearing is not open to the public.

Big Boys don't cry - but only just

To say Iain Percy and Bart Simpson are happy about winning the Star gold medal would be an understatement. They were virtually punching each other with relief and elation as they crossed the finish line after another epic, medal-changing Medal Race. It's good to see them smiling again. I've never seen Percy in such determined, grim-faced mood as this past week.

"It's f***ing great to be back on top!" said Percy - guess where - yes, live on BBC TV! Bryony Shaw (foul-mouthed beauty from Weymouth), eat your heart out. Asked about his choice of words a few minutes later during an interview with BBC Radio Five Live, Percy responded with typical humour: "It goes to show sailing's not just for posh people."

Ben Ainslie was in the commentary box for BBC TV, watching his two best friends sail to gold. When lead commentator Richard Simmonds asked for a few words from Ben, he was too choked up to say anything. Even Percy and Bart were struggling to hold back the blubbing. Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada came second, just sneaking silver after finishing on equal points with Sweden's Freddie Loof and Anders Ekstrom, who had to make do with bronze after fading on the final lap of the Medal Race.

This fourth gold medal brings Team GBR's total tally to six - four gold, one silver, one bronze - which happens to equal Britain's previous best in the Olympics. At the 1908 Games, Britain also got four gold, one silver, one bronze, the difference being back then that a nation could have two boats in each event. Four of those medals came from two classes, so in that sense, the 2008 performance is Britain's best performance of all time.

Australia bounced back well from its no medal performance in Athens to come second in the medal table with two golds, one silver.

RS-Xpletive

Exuberant quote of the day, live on BBC TV, goes to Bryony Shaw after winning bronze on the board. "I'm just so fucking happy!" BBC TV presenter Adrian Chiles compared her to "Gwyneth Paltrow, but with genuine emotion".

Crisp off course

Most bizarre sight of the day was watching Australian RS-X sailor Jessica Crisp disappear up the course for an extra windward leg, while the nine other sailors set off on the slalom course to the finish. At some point Crisp must have wondered why the others weren't following, but gallantly she pressed on and finished her longer course, crossing the line some 9 minutes after the leader.

Apparently she and her coach got the course wrong before the start. Crisp put a brave face on her error, consoling herself with the observation that the way the three medallists finished in the top three of the Medal Race, she wasn't in the running for a medal even if she had taken the shorter route.

This the second time Aussie girls have made strange administrative errors this week. The Yngling team failed to weigh in before their Medal Race, and were disqualified. Again, they could at least console themselves that a medal was not coming their way even if they had been given a finish. But even so. A bit embarrassing.