London 2012 day seven: Laser and Radial medal prospects firm up

Slingsby and Kontides to battle it out for Laser gold and silver as one points separates the top four Radials

Radials

After two general recalls five boats were over early on a black flag start - the sailors from Belarus, Turkey, New Zealand and, unfortunately, Britain's Ali Young.

It was China's Lijia Xu who was first to the top mark ahead of Spain's Alicia Cebrian and Lithuania's Gintare Scheidt. On the run Australia's Krystal Weir entered the fray, pulling up to second, but on the second upwind it was the Irish express, Annalise Murphy who powered up to second sqeezing around the top mark just ahead of the Spanish sailor. Murphy and Cebrian were neck and neck going down the second run as Xu. However the Spanish sailor reclaimed second on the reaching leg and maintained it through to the line, 25 seconds after Xu with Murphy third.

With tension mounting, so there was another general prior to the start of race 10. In this it was the Netherlands' Marit Bouwmeister who was fastest out of the blocks and led up most of the beat before being just overhauled by Xu with the Dutch sailor scond and Murphy third ahead of Evi van Acker and Ali Young. Bouwmeister regained the lead on the run rounding the gate ahead of Xu with van Acker up to third. Bouwmeister and Xu extended down the reaching leg with Young chasing in third. This is how it remained until the finish with the Dutch girl finishing 1:05 ahead of Xu in turn 37 seconds ahead of van Acker, who had overhauled Young on the final reach into the line.

Impressively at the end of the full fleet series Xu and Bouwmeister are tied on 33 points with Murphy and van Acker on 34 going into the medal race. So what does this say about the Radial class we asked van Acker? "It says we are very competitive. We are challenged towards each other and it is going to be the most exciting race of my life. It has never been so close in any of the medal races I have sailed so far – so bring it on!"

Generally of her day the Belgium sailor said: "Not as good as yesterday, but I am not so unhappy. It is really close in points. I dropped to fourth but I am one point from first so it doesn’t really matter whether you are first or fourth. I am really happy with everything so far. I sailed a very good Olympics up until now, no bad races, always in front, so I should go with a lot of confidence into Monday’s medal race. I like the Nothe course so I am really looking forward to it."

Conditions are immaterial for the medal race, says van Acker. "It is the Nothe course – so even if you are really bad in light winds and you bang the right corner you can still win. It is hard to say."

Annalise Murphy looked forward to the medal race: "They are all really good. Marit is a World Champion, Evi has basically been top three at every single event for the last two years, Lijia came third in Beijing. It is pretty tough – they are all really good. I hope I can shake things up a bit on Monday.

"You just have to go in there – we are all so close on points none of us can match race each other because you are going to lose out, so it is an ideal situation – it is just another race and hopefully I can capitalise on that."

Of her day Marit Bouwmeister said: "Today was a real tough battle. I was a bit upset with my first race, but with only a six as a discard I could give my everything in the last race and take a bit more risk and I am happy that worked out for me and I’m still in the race. This week I felt I had a bit of a disadvantage with my weight compared to the other girls. I am really happy to have an equal chance in the medal race. The medal race everything is open." Bouwmeister says that she hasn't been enjoying sailing in the flat water of the Harbour but it has been her downwind speed that has saved her.

Results