Tom Burton and Ashley Stoddart Complete First Day in Rio
Australian sailors Tom Burton (Laser) and Ashley Stoddart (Laser Radial) have made their Olympic debut on the first day of sailing competition in Rio.
The conditions on Rio’s Guanabara Bay served up a challenging day for Australia’s sailors.
Strong breezes, up to around 15 knots greeted the sailors as the launched from Marina de Gloria, but as the day went on these breezes died, with the final races of the day experiencing only around 5 knots at times.
Whilst today’s tides weren’t as testing as they can be, our sailors found the changing wind conditions challenging.
MEN'S ONE PERSON DINGHY (LASER) - TOM BURTON
Tom Burton (Laser)
On the first day of racing for the Laser class, Tom Burton scored a 17th and an eighth putting him equal ninth overall. In the first race, Tom was caught up in an incident forcing him to do penalty turns early in the race. This left him in 45th place at the first mark rounding, but he moved through the fleet for a creditable 17th.
“It’s a tricky course. The tide wasn’t that bad today and it was tricky. The breeze either coming through the heads or over the mountains makes it difficult. The first race was very different to the second race”, Tom said after racing.
“The second race was better. I had two decent starts, but I definitely could have had a better day, it’s important to get space on the start line and breeze and go!
“The forecast was for a little bit more breeze than we had, we went out and had about 15 knots on the first upwind, but the course was more sheltered than I expected it to be”, added Tom.
Racing for the Lasers continues tomorrow with racing scheduled from 1.05pm – 3.20pm in Rio (2.05am – 4.20am AEST).
Ashley kicked off her competition nicely, with an eighth and a seventh, putting her in equal fourth overall at the end of the first day. The Laser Radial fleet raced on Escola Naval course with their second race being televised.
“This is my first Olympics and my first day on the water and I’m really pleased with the result. We’ve been training here for the last couple of years and when I got out there, I was thinking this doesn’t actually feel that different as we’ve been training here and it feels quite comfortable”, Ashley said.
“The conditions were tricky. There was a lot going on in terms of up-down pressure and the wind shifting left throughout the day and it meant you had a lot more land affected wind, making it very shifty”, added Ashley.
Ashley is on the water again tomorrow in Rio with racing for the Laser Radial scheduled for 1.15pm – 3.20pm (2.15am – 4.20am AEST).
Channel 7 will devote all three of its channels – Seven, 7TWO and 7mate – to coverage of the Games with up to 900 hours of action on the three free-to-air channels and available on the Plus7 streaming service/app which you can download now.
There is also a premium upgrade available for $19.95 with up to 36 channels showing over 3,000 total hours of coverage.
During the Rio Olympic Games, Australian Sailing will be emailing members twice a day with all the Australian Sailing action.
An early morning email will update you on overnight results and an afternoon email will outline the racing schedule for the following morning.
In between the two emails, Australian Sailing will produce a short video direct from Rio with interviews from Our Australian Sailors. This video will be posted on social media and included in the afternoon email.
We encourage you to Support Our Sailors in Rio and tag #GoAusSailors on social media so Our Sailors can see your messages.
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