{"id":69719,"date":"2021-07-29T17:32:20","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T21:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=69719"},"modified":"2023-05-06T23:00:07","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T03:00:07","slug":"wind-and-pressure-turn-up-as-u-s-team-stays-in-the-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/wind-and-pressure-turn-up-as-u-s-team-stays-in-the-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind and Pressure Turn Up As U.S. Team Stays in the Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"catamaran <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Nacra 17 Olympians Riley Gibbs and Anna Weiss round the weather mark in their Olympic debut. \n<\/span>\n \u00a9 Sailing Energy \/ World Sailing<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

LIVE RESULTS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The highlights of the day for the US Sailing Team came in the Men\u2019s RS:X and Men\u2019s Laser classes, where years of effort and steady improvement paid off for two athletes competing in their second consecutive Olympic regatta. In a day five that was a close copy of day four from a weather perspective, Enoshima delivered wind, waves and close racing among the world\u2019s best dinghy, board and multihull sailors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

RS:X board sailor Pedro Pascual (Miami, Fla.) entered day five of the event with a chance to cement his substantial improvement from Rio 2016 by earning a medal race berth. A 7th place in the final full-fleet race clinched the significant career milestone for the Miami native. \u201cIn the final race, I just knew that I had to keep my confidence up, and not worry about the medal race too much,\u201d said Pascual, who finished 28th in his Olympic debut five years ago. \u201cThe first two races didn\u2019t go my way, and I figured it couldn\u2019t be three in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Pascual earned six single-digit scores across 12 races after never fished higher than 20th in Rio. \u201cIt\u2019s been a hard five years,\u201d said Pascual. \u201cI made a commitment to improving after Rio, and I\u2019m proud and excited to represent Team USA in the medal race on Saturday.\u201d Saturday\u2019s RS:X medal race will feature 10 competitors, and will count for double points. Pascual enters the medal race in 9th overall, and a chance to move up as high as 8th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

In the Laser, Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.) had one of the best performances by an American sailor in the men\u2019s singlehanded class in recent memory, with his 3, 2 scoreline on the day trailing only that of regatta leader Matt Wearn (AUS), who notched a 1,1. \u201cThe two races were pretty similar,\u201d said Buckingham, a two-time College Sailor of the Year. \u201cThe key was to get off the line and hike as hard as you can. It was a speed race, and I had pretty good speed today, so that served me well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Buckingham now stands in 8th overall, and the top-10 field in the Laser features a notably tight points spread heading into the final day of full-fleet racing on Friday. \u201cThe goal for tomorrow is to have another day like today. The beginning of the regatta was a bit up and down. I knew I had to put in a good day today, and that\u2019s the plan tomorrow as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

In the Men\u2019s 470, four-time Olympian Stu McNay (Providence, R.I.) and Rio 2016 returner Dave Hughes (Miami, Fla.) finished 9, 10 on the day, and sit in 11th overall. The 4th place finishers from Rio flashed their well-documented speed in both races but encountered frustration along the way. McNay and Hughes rounded the first mark of Race 3 in 3rd, but fell to 9th at the finish in a deep class featuring a 13-point spread between 3rd and 12th places overall. In Race 4, the veteran pair had a tough start, rounded the first mark in 15th, but recovered to 10th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

In the men\u2019s heavyweight Finn class, Luke Muller (Ft. Pierce, Fla.) had a tough Race 5 to open the day, but bounced back in a big way by rounding the first weather mark of Race 6 in the lead. The 2013 U.S. Youth Champion battled with a far-launched group of leaders before ultimately finishing 4th and ending the day in 12th overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe last two days I had a lot of trouble downwind, but I think I was just doing a bit too much and not letting myself feel the waves,\u201d said Muller.  \u201cAfter the first upwind of that last race today, rounding in front without a lot of pressure on, I just kind of slowed things down and got on some waves. It was really nice to finish on a high going into the [Finn class] rest day. We have a lot of racing ahead and a lot of work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

In the Nacra 17, Riley Gibbs (Long Beach, Calif.) and Anna Weis (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) had some notable moments, including rounding the first mark of Race 6 in the lead. Ultimately, Gibbs and Weis finished with a 6, 1, (13) on the day, and sit in 10th overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re fast but pretty inconsistent,\u201d said Gibbs. \u201cWe\u2019re working on our technique downwind, and on working together. I think we can race with anyone in this fleet, and we\u2019re just excited for the days ahead.\u201d Weis added that racing a foiling class in big swells requires both mental and physical resilience. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty full on. You have to really be \u2018on it\u2019 every second. You can\u2019t let up your focus for one instant. As the race goes on, and you get tired, it becomes a bigger mental challenge, but a rewarding one if you can keep the hammer down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

In the Women\u2019s 470, Nikole Barnes (St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.) and Lara Dallman-Weiss (Shoreview, Minn.) scored a (15), 13 and now sit in 13th overall. The pair have so far exclusively raced on the inshore \u201cEnoshima\u201d course during the first four races of their series, and will get to try their hands at the \u201cZushi\u201d course further offshore on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md.) concluded her event with a 16, 16, 16 in the 27-board Women\u2019s RS:X fleet, ending the regatta in 15th overall. As full-fleet racing has ended, and Hall is not in the top-10 overall, she will not progress to the medal race. Tokyo 2020 is the second Olympics for Hall, who finished 20th at London 2012. Hall raced in heavy winds and big waves for much of the week, conditions she noted she has struggled with in the past, but showed significant improvement off Enoshima.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs far as competition goes, this is one of the best regattas that I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d said Hall. \u201cMy speed was awesome. I was smoking around the course and I had some good fights. What I\u2019m really happy with is that I gave 100 percent, did everything that I could, and I sailed well. I didn\u2019t make any major mistakes and I finished with a really good regatta for me. In London, I was a little bit less prepared just because I was more of a rookie and I wasn\u2019t extremely happy with my regatta. But at Tokyo 2020 I can say that I\u2019m very happy with this regatta. I have a huge appreciation for the RS:X class, where you have to be a real athlete to sail it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Racing will continue on Friday, July 30, with all classes competing except for the Finn and RS:X fleets, which will have an off day. The 49er and 49erFX will return to action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Racing will continue on Thursday, July 29, with all classes competing except for the 49er and 49erFX fleets, which will have an off day. The NBC Olympics website is hosting the Tokyo 2020 sailing event for U.S. audiences starting at 11:00 PM EDT (8:00 PM PDT) during the event. There are two televised race areas per day, the \u201cEnoshima\u201d and \u201cKamakura\u201d courses. As the classes rotate through each course daily, different athletes will be featured on the broadcast.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

49erFX team Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea turn in a solid first Olympic appearance in Enoshima with the skiff and Nacra classes now racing as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"US Sailing Team","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20210729","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"159","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"49erFX team Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea turn in a solid first Olympic appearance in Enoshima with the skiff and Nacra classes now racing as well.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"ACW6TZIZGFHADKPSIUDSRUGHNY","arc_website_url":"story\/racing\/wind-and-pressure-turn-up-as-us-team-stays-in-the-hunt\/","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[1583,186,185,1584],"class_list":["post-69719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-olympic","tag-olympic-sailing","tag-olympics","tag-tokyo"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}