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Blown on course Strong winds help Americans push off in fleet racing
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Wind, and plenty of it, finally blew across the Olympic sailing courses Wednesday, making it look like a real regatta. American sailors responded by posting several strong finishes in the busiest day of fleet racing on Sydney Harbor and the Pacific Ocean. Leading the way was J.J. Isler of San Diego, who won the second fleet race in the women's 470 class to take the overall lead. Isler, 36, the 1992 bronze medalist, had to take time off from training for this Olympics after giving birth to her second daughter. "That was great to win a race in the Olympics. I've never done that before," said Isler, who in 1992 had her worst performance of the regatta on the opening day. "I knew that we had a really bad first day eight years ago and came back to medal, so if we could just survive the first day, anything would be better than the way I started this regatta before.' Isler's crewmember, Pease Glaser of Long Beach, Calif., is in her first Olympics. Brothers Jonathan and Charlie McKee of Seattle won the fourth 49er fleet race to move into second place overall and stayed there by finishing fifth in the fifth race. The McKees are both former Olympic medalists. The McKees are the only 49er crew without a finish of 10th or lower. Charlie McKee downplayed the significance of the first-place finish in the overall standings, but added: "It sure feels better to win a race at the Olympics." Soling skipper Jeff Madrigali, the 1996 bronze medalist, finished second in each of the final two fleet races, losing the lead both times to Roy Heiner of the Netherlands. Still, the strong finishes helped Madrigali move from ninth place overall into fourth place, which means he doesn't have to sail in the first match racing round robin. "We just missed finishing in the top three, but at least we're not in the bottom six," Madrigali said. The Soling fleet was pared from 16 boats to 12. The bottom six boats must sail the first round robin, or first eliminations, while the top three boats draw byes until the quarterfinals. Madrigali thought he was over the starting line early in the first race, and had to decide whether to restart, which basically meant he would have had to eat a last-place finish. He sailed on, and it turned out he wasn't over early. "It wasn't a good feeling during the whole race," Madrigali said. "It felt great to get ahead, though." After slogging around in light, shifting conditions the first three days, sailors were greeted by a cold south wind of 13-15 knots. Spinnakers billowed and whitecaps appeared on the Pacific off Sydney Heads. Sailors actually got to hike the rail, something they hadn't been able to do during the light breezes the first three days. John Myrdal of Kilua, Hawaii, was in ninth overall with finishes of fourth and 20th. Windsurfer Lanee Butler of Aliso Viejo, Calif., jumped from 13th to fifth place overall with fifth- and seventh-place finishes. Butler was hurt in the standings when she was disqualified in the first race. The 49ers were back on Sydney Harbor after a day off to get new spinnakers. They had to replace the spinnakers displaying national flags because a chemical reaction during printing weakened the cloth. The new spinnakers are in each of the Olympic colors - yellow, green, blue, red and black. In men's 470, Paul Forester of Garland, Texas, faltered with finishes of eighth and ninth, and was eighth overall. Mike Gebhardt of Fort Pierce, Fla., was ninth overall in the men's windsurfing with finishes of 11th and ninth. Courtenay Becker Dey of The Dalles, Ore., the 1996 bronze medalist, was 21st after finishes of 20th and 18th.
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