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Work in 470 class paying off for Foerster Associated Press SYDNEY, Australia -- Right after Paul Foerster won a sailing silver medal in 1992, the Flying Dutchman was given the heave-ho from the Olympic lineup. Foerster had sailed the Flying Dutchman in two Olympics and also won consecutive world championships in 1991-92. Suddenly, two-man boat was a victim of politics, replaced in the games by the Laser class. So in the next quadrennium, "I got a job and got married. Got a cat and a dog," Foerster said matter-of-factly. But he didn't stop sailing, and now he's got a chance to win another Olympic medal. After sitting out 1996, Foerster switched to the 470, another two-man boat. He was in second place going into the 11th and deciding fleet race Wednesday (Tuesday night, U.S. time) on Sydney Harbor. "I worked really hard in that boat (Flying Dutchman) and then when they changed it, it was like, 'I don't want to try another boat for '96,' " Foerster said. "But for 2000, I said, 'Oh, I'll give it a shot.' " The 36-year-old Foerster, a mechanical engineer from Rockwall, Texas, has met big challenges before. He enrolled at the University of Texas in 1983 and, even though he didn't come up through a junior sailing program like most of the other team members, he ended up a three-time All-American. Last fall in the 470 Olympic trials, Foerster and crewman Bob Merrick of Portsmouth, R.I., beat 1992 Olympic silver medalists Morgan Reeser and Kevin Burnham. "It's been three years of really, really hard work to get enough ability to have a chance to win here," Foerster said. "The FD is a harder boat to sail, but the thing about the 470 is, when it's easier to sail, that means you can have a lot more people that are good at it." Foerster is five points behind Tom King and Mark Turnbull, the reigning world champions from Australia. The U.S. women's 470 skipper, J.J. Isler of San Diego, also is in position to become a repeat medalist. Isler and her crew, Pease Glaser of Long Beach, Calif., are third going into the deciding women's race, behind Australia and Germany. Isler won the 470 bronze in 1992. To win the gold here, she and Glaser, who's in her first Olympics, must win the final race and have Australia finish ninth or worse. On Tuesday, racing started in rain and shifting 12-knot winds. But it turned into the kind of day that gives sailing a bad name as the wind died to about 3 knots on Sydney Harbor and the Finn fleet creaked along to the finish of its second race. There wasn't enough wind on the Laser course to get in the second race of the day. Finn skipper Russ Silvestri of Tiburon, Calif., played the shifts right in the first race and finished second, but was 16th in the next race to drop to sixth overall with five races to go. "Everything kind of went my way," Silvestri said. "It seemed easy. That was the problem. I thought it was going to be easy the next race, too. I probably just got a little too cocky in between races." He didn't pay as close attention to the shifts that race, which left him well back in the 25-boat fleet. On the Pacific, four-time Olympian Mark Reynolds of San Diego finished sixth and 10th and is seventh overall in the Star class with five races to go in the 16-boat fleet. Reynolds is a former gold and silver medalist. "We didn't have our best day," Reynolds said. "We just weren't in sync. A lot of people are up and down, and with five races to go, guys up there can certainly have some bad ones." Courtenay Becker Dey of The Dalles, Ore., the 1996 Europe bronze medalist, was 15th overall with three races remaining. She finished 15th and sixth on Tuesday. Laser skipper John Myrdal of Kailua, Hawaii, finished second in the seventh fleet race and is 17th overall. |  | ALSO SEE Clutch 49er race gives McKee brothers bronze U.S. Soling skipper eliminated Finland pair sails to golden heights American Foerster takes lead after six races | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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