Sailors were tested by a northern Rio breeze for the first time at the Aquece Rio – International Sailing Regatta in a testing day for the sailors and officials.
Heading into the day, upon viewing the forecast, many believed the Race Committees would be hard pressed to fit in any racing with 2-6 knots present.
A northern early afternoon breeze enabled the Nacra 17 and RS:X fleets to get some racing in before the breeze slowly turned round to the south.
It was a long day for all of the competitors as they waited for a breeze suitable for racing. The Finn and Nacra 17 fleet completed two whilst the 470s, 49erFX, Laser, Laser Radial and RS:X fleets got one race apiece in. Only the 49ers were unable to get any racing in.
Men’s and Women’s RS:X
Aichen Wang’s (CHN) Olympic gold medal winning coach Tom Ashley (NZL) described his athlete’s performance as, “one of the best I have seen,” after the Chinese sailor opened up a 17 point lead over his Men’s RS:X rivals.
Ashley, who won gold in the Men’s RS:X at Beijing 2008, has guided Wang to five race victories from nine fleet races with the remaining results all in the top five.
The ball is firmly in Wang’s court heading into the Medal Race and Ashley was full of high praise after racing,”He’s been amazing this week. I have rarely seen anyone give such a good performance. All the years that I was sailing and the last couple of years I’ve been watching as a coach, so far, it’s been one of the best performances I have seen. We have still got the Medal Race tomorrow and
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