Sports

Clark-Lihan place sixth in first day of French pre-Olympics world regatta

COURTESY PHOTO | International flag display at the harbor in Hyere, France, where a week-long world regatta is being held this week ahead of the upcoming summer Olympics.

US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics competitors, including Amanda Clark of Shelter Island, held four top-10 positions after the first day of sailing on Sunday, April 22 in the the French Olympic Sailing Week regatta in Hyere.

Battling Mistral winds that peaked at 42 knots, skipper Clark and her crew Sarah Lihan of Ft. Lauderdale placed sixth in the women’s 470 competition.

Jen French and JP Creignou placed third in the SKUD-18; Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl were third in men’s 470; ; Mark LeBlanc was in 2.4mR; while two women’s match racing teams went undefeated: Anna Tunnicliffe’s “Team Maclaren” of Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi (3-0); and Sally Barkow’s “Team 7” of Alana O’Reilly and Elizabeth Kratzig Burnham (2-0).

The French competition is among the International Sailing Federation’s schedule of world-class events leading up to the Olympics this summer in Weymouth.