There was a light load on the Olympic
Regatta courses today, with only the 49ers sailing three races and the Stars
sailing a single makeup race. The small number of races, however, counted
big for the USA, putting the Star team of Paul Cayard (Kentfield, Calif.)
and Phil Trinter (Lorain, Ohio/Port Washington, N.Y.) more solidly into
medal contention while at the same time dashing any medal hopes had by 49er
sailors Tim Wadlow (San Diego, Calif.) and Pete Spaulding (Miami, Fla.).

Going into today with a fourth overall, Wadlow and Spaulding turned in a
10th and an 11th before winning today’s final race. “Two big shifts in the
first two races didn’t go our way,” said Wadlow, giving the Cliff Notes
version of what went amiss. “In the last race, everything went our way, but
it was too little, too late.”

The finish positions again left them in fourth overall at day’s end, but
with the next racing day’s window of opportunity closed. Only a single
race-scheduled as a medal round to take place Thursday, August 26–remains
in the 16-race series, and there is no way the USA can catch up
mathematically in the scoring with the three teams ahead in medal positions
(Spain, Ukraine and Great Britain).

“It was bittersweet,” said Wadlow, who with Spaulding finished fifth at the
49er World Championship and fourth at both SPA and Hyeres Week this year.
“To win the last race today was great, but it’s the end of a dream.”

Spaulding added: “Today when we were ahead by a considerable margin, we did
sit back and enjoy the moment. We thought that this could be a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; someday we might be able to do the Olympics
again, but we don’t really know. We had a chance to reflect on the
experience and it put a smile on our faces.”

After climbing to fourth overall yesterday, Cayard and Trinter finished
sixth today to move up a notch to third overall. They are tied on points
with fourth-place finisher Denmark and have Canada and Brazil ahead of them.
Brazil’s Torben Grael and Marcelo Farreira have a strong but not
insurmountable lead on the fleet.

“In the big scheme of things, I’m happy,” said Cayard, explaining that he
had to fight back, as he did yesterday, from a position deep in the fleet
for his respectable finish. “Most of the race we were 10th or 12th, and on
the last leg, we got our head out of the boat and passed a group in front of
us to get to sixth. I have to be humble enough to admit that we had to have
some luck to do that. Yesterday, we felt more in control of moving up.”

Cayard and Trinter had been tied in points with Canada before that country’s
team received redress points in today’s race for a jib track that had been
ripped from its deck after a collision with Bermuda. The effect of the
decision was nearly six points shaved off Canada’s score. Cayard and Trinter
will be watching that team closely as well as those in the next six places
behind them.

“Torben will be hard to reel in,” said Cayard. “I wish the whole group was
closer to him, because the pack that’s close together will eventually start
thinking silver or bronze and will start beating up on each other and he’ll
get farther ahead. I just hope tomorrow we can get him back farther in the
fleet so there will be a chunk of guys fighting for gold in the end.”

The Stars have three more racing days and five races to go.

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