(QINGDAO, August 18) – Medal races in the Laser (Men's One Person Dinghy) and Laser Radial (Women's One Person Dinghy) will be held on race Area A of the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center on Tuesday, August 19, with Paul Goodison in a commanding position to claim Great Britain's third gold medal at the Sailing regatta. He takes an 18-point lead into the double-points race.
Laser (Men's One Person Dinghy)
Paul Goodison finished first, fourth and sixth in Monday's races to lead Rasmus Myrgren from Sweden by 18 points. The ISAF World Ranked No.3 will add to Great Britain's already impressive collection of Yngling and Finn gold medals and Men's 470 Silver.
Myrgren and a few others will fight for the silver and bronze medals, including current third placed overall Gustavo Lima from Portugal, Athens bronze medalist Vasilij Zbogar from Slovenia who is in fourth place and fifth placed Deigo Romero from Italy.
Pre-Olympic favorites Andrew Murdoch from New Zealand and Julio Alsogaray from Argentina are in danger of missing medals, while double world champion and World No. 1 Tom Slingsby from Australia will not make the medal round after finishing in 22nd place, having been unable to get good upwind boat speed.
Laser Radial (Women's One Person Dinghy)
World No.1 Anna Tunnicliffe from the United States is in the box seat going into the double-points medal race on Tuesday, with a seven-point advantage over her nearest rival Gintare Volungeviciute of Lithuania, but she does not have it all her own way.
World No. 2 Chinese Xu Lijia came out strongly, scoring a bullet in race seven. She finished the day with an 11th and a sixth to be third overall going in to the medal race. Only Xu and Volungeviciute can challenge Tunnicliffe for gold.
Out of contention for gold by a mere point, but in the ring for silver and bronze is World No. 3 Sarah Blanck of Australia, Sarah Steyaert of France and Evi van Acker from Belgium.
Women's RS:X (Windsurfer)
The five pre-Olympic favorites are vying for gold with one race remaining in the opening series. Three-time Olympian Alessandra Sensini from Italy, who took over the series lead from Chinese sailor Yin Jian on Monday, heads the rush for gold following races seven, eight and nine.
Others in contention are World No. 1 Marina Alabau of Spain, Bryony Shaw of Great Britain and Jessica Crisp of Australia, third, fourth and fifth overall.
There is only 11 points between the top five.
Another favorite, Barbara Kendall from New Zealand, dropped off to seventh on Monday, 20 points off the lead. She will need to come up with something special on Tuesday if she is to claim her fourth Olympic medal on Wednesday.
Men's RS:X (Windsurfer)
Tom Ashley of New Zealand, one of the pre-Games favorites, is leading the charge for gold with one race remaining in the opening series to be sailed on Tuesday, and the double-points medal race to be sailed on Wednesday.
Only 12 points separate the top five, but things could change again on Tuesday in the expected lighter conditions in the 7-10 knot range.
In the medal mix are: Nick Dempsey from Great Britain, who admits he is driven by his teammates' medal-winning performances in Qingdao; Julien Bontemps, the Frenchman at his second Olympics who feels he has nothing to lose; and Shahar Zubari of Israel, who led the regatta for several days while the winds were light.
Star (Men's Keelboat)
The Stars are scheduled to sail two races on Area C on Tuesday. This will bring them within one race of completing their 10-race opening series.
Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom of Sweden have the lowest average, but like nearly every other boat in the fleet, have discarded a deep finish (in their case, a 15th in the 16-boat fleet).
Ian Percy and Andrew Simpson of the Great Britain poured it on in the final two races on Monday, and might keep the momentum going.
Frenchmen Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau were the bronze medalists in Athens and their consistent sailing might be enough to land them silver or gold.
Expect the fleet to return to the dock with the scores close enough so that the final race of the opening series will be one in which everyone is fighting for points to get into the medal race rather than build a cushion for the medal race.
Tornado (Multihull Mixed)
The Tornados are scheduled to sail two races on Area C on Tuesday. This will bring them within one race of completing their 10-race opening series.
It is no surprise recent past world champions are tied for the lead in this fleet. Spaniards Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz and Australians Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby have 20 points each after seven races.
With 29 points separating the top 12 of this 15-boat fleet, nobody can be ruled out.
Light air is forecast for Tuesday, and they could be the conditions for Chupacabra to make its presence known.
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