Smooth sailing for GTA competitors in preliminaries
August 9, 2008
Torstar news services
QINGDAO, China–A good first day of Olympic sailing has a couple of Canadian boats in nice position one-fifth of the way through their preliminary races.
A trio of Ontario women sit in second place in the Yngling class and Toronto's Chris Cook - a native of Whitby - is fourth in the Finn event.
Skipper Jennifer Provan, of Toronto, and crew Martha Henderson, of Toronto, and Katie Abbot, of Sarnia, placed fifth and fourth, respectively, in the first two of 10 races for nine net points. They were particularly fast going downwind in the first race, picking up eight positions, and ended the day trailing only a boat from Great Britain that has five points. A Dutch trio is third with 10 points at the early stage of a competition that ends with the medal race Aug. 16.
Meanwhile, Cook is fourth among 26 entered in the Finn class, behind boats from Poland (five points), the U.S. (seven) and Great Britain (11). The Royal Canadian Yacht Club sailor placed eighth and third in his two races for 11 points, likewise the first of the competition's 10 before the medal race Aug. 16.