|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
No so perfect Light breeze dulls competitions again
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- The weather on Sydney Harbor and out on the Pacific Ocean has been perfect for tourists. Not so for Olympic sailors. Racing was affected by light breezes for the third straight day and the regatta dropped to a painfully slow pace on Tuesday. The Tornado catamarans didn't race at all, the windsurfers got in one race and then had to abandon their second, and the Soling crews drifted through two races on the Pacific Ocean. "It was a very tough day out there," U.S. Soling skipper Jeff Madrigali said after finishing second and 15th to drop to ninth overall. "It was very marginal sailing, really." The final two Soling fleet races are scheduled for Wednesday, and each crew gets to drop its worst race. The 16-boat fleet will be pared to 12 for a series of match races, with the medals to be decided in the harbor off the Sydney Opera House on Sept. 30. Madrigali, the 1996 bronze medalist, and his two-man crew have had wildly inconsistent finishes of 4th, 14th, 2nd and 15th. He figures that after dropping his worst race, he'll probably finish sixth or seventh. "We're not going to get too down on ourselves," Madrigdali said. "We had two good races, we're in the middle of the pack and it looks like we're going to get through to the match racing and I think that's where we can do our damage." Everyone would like to see the wind pick up, and it might on Wednesday. "We haven't had a really good race yet," Madrigali said. "They've all been this kind of racing, just light, funky. That's what we're having, so that's what we have to deal with." Wednesday will be the busiest sailing day yet, with eight of the 11 classes racing. The Europe, Laser and men's and women's 470 classes will have their first races, weather permitting. Madrigali led the first three legs of the first race before being passed in a dying breeze by Norway's Horn Johannessen, who leads the standings. Madrigali had a poor start in the second race, which was won by Australia's Wittey Neville. The highest the wind got in either race was 8 knots. Madrigali has a new crew for his 26-foot boat in these games: Craig Healy of Tiburon, Calif., and Hartwell Jordan of Discovery Bay, Calif. In Sydney Harbor, the Tornado catamarans bobbed around waiting for wind, while spectators on charter boats and on the shore soaked up the sun. The race was finally abandoned and the boats headed back in. The windsurfers got a race under way nearly three hours late. Lanee Butler of Aliso Viejo, Calif., jumped up two spots to 13th overall after finishing sixth. Mike Gebhardt of Fort Pierce, Fla., remained in eighth place after finishing 17th. Gebhardt is a former silver and bronze medalist. The women windsurfers started a second race, but it was abandoned before they got to the top mark. The second men's race was abandoned before the start.
| ||||||||||||||||
