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Friday, September 22
Texan leads 470 class
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Whether it's a Texas lake or Sydney
Harbor in the Olympics, Paul Foerster has a knack for picking wind
shifts.
Foerster won two straight races Friday (Thursday night ET) to
take the 470 class lead after six fleet races.
Foerster, who won the silver medal in the discontinued Flying
Dutchman class in 1992, had been in fifth place coming into
Friday's racing. He and his crew, Bob Merrick of Portsmouth, R.I.,
like to split away from the fleet to take advantage of wind shifts,
something they did quite well in a northeasterly breeze in the
headlands area of the harbor.
"It was just tactics today," Foerster said. "You just keep
your eyes open, head over there and hopefully it's going to be
there. You cross your fingers."
Foerster and Merrick were 10th at one point in the fifth fleet
race and passed the French boat on the second-to-last leg, again
guessing right on a wind shift.
"We're definitely more comfortable sailing a little bit away
from the fleet because it allows us to sail our own race," said
Merrick, who's in his first Olympics.
Foerster grew up in Corpus Christi and spent considerable time
sailing on Texas lakes. He now lives in Rockwall, near Dallas.
The 470 isn't the only American crew with the lead.
Brothers Jonathan and Charlie McKee of Seattle held onto their
slim lead over Finland in the 49er class with four races to go.
The McKees led at all five turning marks to win the 11th fleet
race. They also had two thirds and an 11th on Friday.
"It's still pretty wide open within the top six with four races
left," Jonathan McKee said. `Even today with a more solid breeze,
you still saw that it was easy to be up and down."
J.J. Isler of San Diego dropped from first to fifth in the
women's 470. She and crew Pease Glaser of Long Beach, Calif., were
fourth in the third fleet race, but followed that with their worst
finish -- 16th out of 19 boats.
"It's a deep fleet, so if you get behind, everyone's going
fast, everyone's sailing well, so it's not like you can claw your
way back," said Isler, the 1992 bronze medalist.
The first sailing gold medal was decided when Austria's Roman
Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher clinched first place in the
Tornado class with two races left. They won two of three races
Friday and have won five of nine overall. The silver and bronze
medals are still to be decided. The U.S. crew, John Lovell of New
Orleans and Charlie Ogletree of Newport Beach, Calif., are seventh
overall.
The women's windsurfing medalists will be Amelie Lux of Germany,
Alessandra Sensini of Italy and Barbara Kendall of New Zealand. Who
gets what color will be decided in Sunday's final race. Lanee
Butler of Aliso Viejo, Calif., is fourth overall and will be shut
out for a third straight Olympics.
U.S. windsurfer Mike Gebhardt of Fort Pierce, Fla., a former
silver and bronze medalist, is sixth overall with two races to go.
The 49ers raced on one of the innermost courses on Sydney
Harbor, within sight of Sydney Opera House, the Harbor Bridge and
several spectator vantage points on shore. Several dozen fans lined
the tip of Bradley's Head.
Jonathan McKee, 40, won the gold medal in the Flying Dutchman in
1984 and Charlie McKee, 38, won the bronze in the 470 in 1988.
The 49er is a high-performance, winged skiff making its Olympic
debut. It was designed four years ago along the lines of the famous
Sydney 18-footers. The two-man crew stands on the wings the whole
race, held in by a trapeze harness, and hikes out as far as
possible to try to keep the boats level.
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