Boasting a fleet of world class sailing stars and including a plethora of Olympic and World Championship Medalists, the Gold Medal race for the Star Class got under way at 7.13am Irish time having been delayed from the scheduled 6am start
Going into the race the favourites were Sweden on 33 points, Britain on 35 points and Brazil on 47 points. The race counted for double points. Once again the snakes and ladders had returned to this venue and the race produced some surprising results with Sweden fnishing in 10th position. Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada of Brazil rounded the first windward and leeward marks in the lead, dropped to fifth at the second windward and finished in 3rd position with a total of 53 points. Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson of Britain rounded the first windward and leeward marks in sixth and second position, dropped to seventh at the second windward mark and finished in 5th position with a total of 45 points. The favourites, Sweden, rounded the first windward and leeward marks in fifth and second position, dropped to tenth at the second windward and fnished the race in 10th place on 53 points. This left the final medal positions with Britain Gold, Brazil Silver and Sweden Bronze and Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson of Britain becoming the first and final Stars of the Qingdao Sailing regatta.
The finishing positions for the Star Medal race were as follows: Poland 1, Switzerland 2, Brazil 3, Germany 4, Britain 5, Portugal 6, New Zealand 7, Italy 8, France 9 and Sweden 10.
Now the Olympic Regatta of 2008 at Qingdao has concluded with all its triumphs and heatbreak. Everyone who participated in any discipline is a winner in their own right.
We now look forward to the "behind the scenes reports" and perhaps will have some interesting, funny and maybe even sad stories to dwell upon. We can hear in detail about the race where everyone of the 49ers capsized. We will hear about Denmark swopping their boat, going on to take 7th place and hold their Gold. We will hear about the resulting nineteen hour protest hearing and more about the rumours that the matter may go to the Court of Arbitration. We can picture the Star fleet returning ashore for a delay of three hours as their committee boat was sinking and many,many more.
To the many club members and other viewers who joined the Royal Cork Yacht Club Website during the Regatta, thank you for your company. Hopefully you will have gained some sort of a picture of the event, even though there was not always much news forthcoming at the time of writing.
Perhaps you will join us again when we hope to provide some coverage of the Paralympic Sailing Regatta from Qingdao September 7th/8th on.
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