There wasn’t much we could do to ensure ourselves a top 5 finish, but we got it done. The race got underway late after a postponement and abandonment at the first mark allowed the sea breeze to come in. We had to get top two to have a chance at moving up, and we had nothing to lose.

We did not have a great start in the one that counted. We tacked right and began to lose our lane when we got to a good right hand shift and puff. The shift allowed us to tack away from the competition and get ourselves back in the race. We rounded the top mark in second place and two of the three boats we needed in the bottom three in the ten-boat race were nearly there! We were able to remain in second place all the way around the course, even after taking some risks to try to move into first. Once we finished it was time to watch our competition cross the line. The Canadians, who started the day 16 points ahead of us finished 10th. We knew we would be tied with them and at least move into sixth place. However, the Croatians were in a very close race towards the finish for eighth place. Since we got second, we needed them to finish ninth in the double-points medal race to end the event tied with them also. Sure enough, as the scoreboard that went up confirmed, they were ninth. We were ecstatic! This is the second medal race in a row that everything went just as we planned, and that is a very good thing in this game.

It was a rollercoaster week here in Miami, but we made the best of it in the end. We proved to ourselves once again that we can come back after setbacks, which is incredibly important in Olympic sailing.

Thanks for following along all week. Final results can be seen here. In case you missed the medal race, the GPS tracking playback can be seen here.

Thanks again to all of our supporters, sponsors, and to the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics. It’s going to be a great year together!

Erik
Storck Moore Sailing