RSS
windgirls WATERworld | home | want to publish here? | RSS
 |
|
wSunday, August 24, 2008 | |
|
 |
Beijing - it's over...  Jian Yin wins the RS:X Womens Gold medal! photo: Richard Gladwell Nikola Girkes final report: What seemed like the never ending regatta, ended today. We finally got one last race in today to complete our 10 race series. I'm a bit confused as which days we raced and which ones we didn't as for the past few days we've been having two races in the morning, then postponed on shore until further notice with the intention of completing a third race later in the day. So, the waiting game continued.  Yesterday the wind was great, that was at least the case before our start. At about 5 seconds to the Starting gun, I was coming in fast on starboard by the committee boat and got struck down by the Chinese girl. In front of me there was a pile up, as one girl fell, the next couldn't do anything but fall herself and it was a bit of a domino effect where I ended up getting the Chinese girls' sail falling on mine. So, as everyone started racing, I was swimming. With the strong current, I was sucked behind the committee boat and in a no wind zone. Once up, without wind in my sail, I fell back into the water. Ugh!!!! I tried to stay calm and focused on the race but with the rest of the fleet minutes ahead of me, I was in for a long uphill battle. The wind dropped quite a bit and I must say I had to take some risky tactical decisions to try to catch up, but they didn't work either... I did beat a few boards but about 5 meters before I crossed the finish line, the time limit was up and I was scored a DNF (did not finish). Our race target time is 30-35minutes and this race ended up way over an hour. Needless to say, that became my new discarded race and I was exhausted both mentally and physically. Race two of the day didn't really go my way either - I did get a good start but just wasn't able to make anything out of the race. I finished 18th. We then got sent ashore for a rest before the 3rd race of the day was supposed to happen. We finally got sent out later in the afternoon - the wind was dying and the current increasing. The guys fleet started but when they got a 50degree shift, the race committee abandoned the race and then blew off the day for all of us and sent us in... which meant we had to finish off one last race today. I was going to make it a good one... And for the most part it was. I had a great start but failed to tack quick enough when I had the chance. The Chinese girl who I started next to went on to win the race while I was mid-pack. Some gains and some losses had me finish in 15th today, which kept me in the same position of 17th overall. Tomorrow is the medal race for the top 10 girls. Unfortunately I missed out. I will enjoy my first day of not being on constant stand-by to stand-by as we have been in full racing mode for the past 9 days and that is pretty exhausting in itself. Will write more once rested. Thank you for all your supportive emails! It was great to receive each and every one of them - they are one of my sources of inspiration! posted by editors at 8/24/2008 07:18:00 PM |
|
|
|
|
|
