Race 8 stopped with Pickel/Borkowski leading

QINGDAO. The German Star class sailors Marc Pickel and Ingo Borkowski had to abstain from an important triumph at the Olympic Games on Tuesday (19 August). Three quarter of race eight had been sailed when the race was abandoned in very weak and shifty conditions. At this point the duo had just made its way from the end to the top of the fleet. But for now it stays within medal reach on rank five overall.

Pickel/Borkowski downwind on the Qingdao race course, China

„We knew from the weather forecast that it would be very difficult today”, said Marc Pickel when he came back to the shore. Meteorologist Meeno Schrader from Kiel, who coaches the German Team in Qingdao, had foreseen the scenario. “Only the little rotation, this extra puff which brought the guys in front, was surprising to me”, said Schrader, starting the consideration immediately.

Right after the start in an already very light breeze Pickel/Borkowski had been falling behind quickly. Second to last they rounded the top mark and even dropped to the end on the following leg. “But then we took full risk and headed to the far right”, the helmsmen explained, “at the windward mark we have been clearly in front then, followed by the Chinese.” And the team from the host country is at the end of the results list. But the wind had shifted 180 degrees and the stop of the race was justifiable.

Now the hunters of the top three crews hope for wind in the three scheduled races on the last day of competition before the medal race on Thursday (21 August) brings the decision. The first start is planned for 11 a.m. local time. “The prospects for a nice breeze are a bit better than today“, said Schrader, „but we do not expect a lot of wind.”

For further information please go to www.sailing.org/Olympics.

Results of the Olympic sailing competition

Overall results oft he Star class after seven races:

1 Fredrik Lööf/Anders Ekström (Sweden, 1/4/(15)/3/6/1/8) 23 points
2 Iain Percy/Andrew Simpson (Great Britain, 7/(13)/3/5/8/2/1) 26
3 Xavier Rohart/Pascal Rambeau (France, (12)/1/5/4/7/6/9) 32
4 Mateusz Kusznierewicz/Dominik Zycki (Poland, 5/6/8/2/(10)/9/3) 33
5 Marc Pickel/Ingo Borkowski (Kiel/Babelsberg, 2/(14)/1/8/3/8/14) 36
6 Afonso Domingos/Bernado Santos (Portugal, 3/3/10/(OCS)/13/3/5) 37
7 Hamish Pepper/Carl Williams (New Zealand, 4/9/2/11/1/(12)/11) 38
8 Robert Scheidt/Bruno Prada (Brasil, 10/(11)/6/1/9/10/2) 38