Improving Goodbody confident break will come

WHILE Britain’s dominant Olympic sailors marched to lead two of the three classes which have started racing on Fushan Bay off Qingdao, Ireland’s Finn sailor Tim Goodbody lies in 18th place overall after four races.

Goodbody opened with a nervous 22nd place in Saturday’s very light, difficult conditions when the sea breeze and gradient wind were in conflict to produce big wind shifts and a big drop in wind strength, if such a description can be used when the breeze is no more than five knots to start with.

Goodbody has posted a 13th and two 15th places. In the second race he was up in sixth place after a good opening, but he struggled to emerge unscathed when the fleet converged to form virtually one single line, spread laterally across the course, funnelling across the finish line 25 metres behind Britain’s Olympic champion Ben Ainslie, whose second victory this was, and who is second overall, five points behind America’s Zach Railey.

“I was reasonably happy to come away with two top 15’s,” said Goodbody, “but we all just came across the line together in that second race. I was up there, but in the last half of the last run the breeze came in from the left and we were further right. So it did not exactly help, but there was only 20 seconds between me and third place.

“No one has ever seen it this close. It is amazingly close and it seems like the last half of the last run is what sorts out the race. It is solid enough, and I am getting better as I go along, but I feel like I have not had the breaks yet. I am in a position that when the break comes I should be able to take it, I am getting in positions that I can attack from. I feel good and am really enjoying the racing.”

While Ireland’s 470 pairing, Ger Owen and Phil Lawton, have been training well and have to wait until tomorrow to get their campaign under way, it is Friday before Cork’s Peter O’Leary and his crew Stephen Milne start their racing in the Star class at their first Olympics.

A relaxed O’Leary said yesterday that, after months of training at the venue, the magnitude of the Olympic experience was brought home to the Royal Cork YC sailor when he stepped out into the Olympic stadium in Beijing at the opening ceremony.

“The size of the stadium was incredible. You really get a sense of where you are when you walk down the tunnel with the roar of 71,000 people just going mental, like being at Croke Park, I guess,” grinned O’Leary.