I admit it.
I am just as bad as predicting the winners of sailing regattas as I am at sailing in them.
As of now I seem to be only 1 for 3 in predicting who will do well in the singlehanded classes at the Olympic regatta.
The one I got right was Slingo in the Lasers. After 4 races, Tom Slingsby of Australia is leading the standings but he only has a 4 point lead over Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus who won both races today. Who? Sorry. Never heard of him, but I see he was in the top ten at the 2010 and 2011 Worlds. Only 22 years old. Good for him.
But based on results so far, I was totally wrong in my prediction that Big Ben Ainslie would dominate the Finn class. He has been completely upstaged by Jonas Hogh-Christensen of Denmark who has beaten Ben in all 6 races so far and leads him by 10 points. That virtual person Noodle who only exists in some imaginary reality Second Life is virtually peeing her virtual pants with virtual excitement about Jonas. With only 4 races left until the medal race, Big Ben is going to have to turn on the jets if he is going to win a gold medal this year. It's going to be interesting.
In the Radials I hedged my bets and implied that the Olympic regatta was going to be a closely fought competition between a group of women who have all been doing well internationally in the last year or two. I didn't expect anyone to dominate the regatta. Wrong! Surprising all the pundits (well surprising me anyway) Annalise Murphy of Ireland has won every single one of the 4 races held so far. Trailing by 12 and 14 points in 2nd and 3rd are the ladies from Belgium and the Netherlands whom I did pick as favorites. And Alison Young of Great Britain whom I also picked is only 3 points further back in 4th.
Pause for patriotic singing of Jerusalem, God Save the Queen, Hey Jude, celebrations of the industrial revolution, the National Health Service, the World Wide Web and Mary Poppins, and a sketch by Mr. Bean... and frenzied chants of "GBR GBR GBR!"
Oh sorry. Got carried away a bit there. Still haven't got over that opening ceremony.
Where was I? Where am I? Oh yes, Annalise Murphy from Ireland.
To be fair I did sorta kinda give her a tip of the hat as one of "a few others I could mention... who probably also have a good shot at a medal this year." Let me honor her properly in this post by including a couple of pictures of her too.
As sailors say in Ireland, "Is olc an ghaoth nach séideann do dhuine éigin."
It's an ill wind that doesn't blow somebody some good.
12 comments:
Great post. I watched Annalise do her magic today. She had pretty much no competition winning every race by a substantial amount. There were some entertaining crashes at the windward mark. Comforting to know that international athletes port tack the fleet with disastrous results.
Rats, I missed the crashes!
Judith, so what are the two things that Annalise does that makes her so good that mere mortals don't do?
I saw the crashes but not who had to do penalties - anyone know?
I think I jinxed her. Looks like Annalise was 8th in the first race today.
I was going to say póg mo thóin, but I'll stick with maith an fear!
You properly jinxed her though - she was 19th in race 6. Perhaps you could you oblige with a blast of Rule Britannia?
On second thoughts, maybe my prediction of a tight regatta between a group of contenders was closer to the truth. Ireland had a rough day today. Netherlands and Belgium each won a race. Great Britain scored another 2nd and China got two top 5 finishes.
So, in the Radials Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Britain and China have scores of 12,14,19,23,25 after 6 races with 1 discard. That's pretty close with 4 more races to go until the medal race. Anything can happen.
Meanwhile in the Men's Lasers, my only one solid prediction is starting to look a little shaky as the Cypriot has taken the lead in the overall standings after six races with Tom Slingsby of Australia one point back in second. It's going to be interesting...
I don't know what they gave Paul Goodison for his back pain, but it seems to be working. 10 23 16 in first three races, followed by a much better 2 4 9 in races 4 to 6.
Like.
Great showing from team GB other than the injured Paul. after 2/8/12 races GB in medal positions in all 5 mens sailing clases apart from the Laser.
And Ben has closed the gap between him and the flying Dane in the FInn to only 3 points - with two more fleet races and the medal race still to go.
It ain't over until the fat lady sings.
Not that I am saying that any of the lady sailors are fat. Or any of the ladies singing in the opening ceremony. Or the closing ceremony. Or that Australian swimmer. Or that British heptathlete. Or the Brazilian women's football team.
Or any of the lady weightlifters.
I don't want another letter from a US Olympic committee supremo telling me that I'm not respecting the girls on his team.
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