News Fourth Overall after the Rolex OCR Medal Race (Anna Tunnicliffe)

TLF

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Miami, FloridaJanuary 27, 2007I finished third today in the ten-boat Medal Race for Laser Radials at the US Sailing Rolex Olympic Classes Regatta in Miami to pick up one place in the overall standings and score fourth for the event. This was college-style racing – four short legs, really close to shore, less than half an hour’s racing. It was very puffy and shifty, with flat water, but the small boat traffic on Biscayne Bay just kept increasing, and of course building the chop. I had a great start at the pin end and hooked into a nice shift at first and then came back the other way and sailed into oblivion. It was one of those shifty see-saw races where you had to hang on and see what cards fate dealt you.I was sixth at the top mark and then had a good run and picked up two boats to be fourth at the lee mark. I started catching Sweden’s Karin Soderstrom on the next beat and she began match racing me. I broke free but at the cost of being on the wrong side of a shift. I was back to sixth at the weather mark but it was close, a tight-packed rounding. My last run was rock solid and I moved up to third. I was on my way to a Bronze Medal and a place on the podium, because there were enough boats between me and Evi Van Acker from Belgium, until another competitor was flagged for kinetics and the finishing order altered.Finland’s Sari Multala won the Gold Medal. Gintare Volungeviciute from Lithuania took the Silver and Evi the Bronze. I’m happy in general with how I sailed. I had one bad day and a couple of unfortunate incidents but my strengths far outweighed my weaknesses. I know what I’ve got to work on. I learned a lot from this regatta and that is actually a blessing. I’ve got the rest of the year and a good regatta season coming up to let me refine all the skills I’ll need to win a Gold Medal in Qingdao.This is my last report in this series but I’ll have more news for you when the Radial North American Championship starts in Fort Lauderdale next Tuesday. The full Laser Radial race-by-race and cumulative results are at http://www.rolexmiamiocr.org/results/laserradial_06.htm. My sponsor, Carmeuse, is at www.carmeusena.com.Until next time,Sail hard,Anna

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