Clark-Lihan in sixth place in last world cup regatta before Olympics

Amanda Clark and her crew Sarah Lihan stood at 6th place on Friday in the 32-boat women’s 470 fleet competing this week in the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta at Weymouth, England. Because of stormy weather, racing was cancelled Friday, leaving only the medal race scheduled for Saturday.

The event is the sixth in a series of ISAF Sailing World Cup regattas leading up to the Olympics, which also will be sailed in Weymouth beginning in July.

Teams from New Zealand, France and Great Britain held the top three positions after Thursday’s racing. As top-10 finisher, Clark-Lihan’s Team Go Sail will be competing in the medal race Saturday.

They dropped to sixth from fifth place in the standings on Thursday, day four of the event, after Clark-Lihan placed 15th in the first race of the day and 8th in the second. They discarded the 15th-place finish so it was not counted in determining their standing.

They won a race on Tuesday, the second day of racing, putting them in third place overall at the end of the day.

The American team did not comment after Thursday’s racing on their Facebook page. On Wednesday, they wrote: “Team GO SAIL put up two more keeper scores today on a very complicated race course, three fleets racing intermingled, very shifty, big pressure differences, not to mention the ever-changing current! Sitting in fifth with the points very, very close, we are proud to be one of the five US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider teams in the top 10 here at Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta.”

On Friday, they wrote: “Final day of racing has just been abandoned here, leaving only the medal race, scheduled for 11:55 (GMT) tomorrow morning (or 2:55 p.m. Eastern time). Sitting in sixth right now, we are still within reach of the podium!”
Team Go Sail’s finishes during the week were as follows: Day one, 8 and 14; day two, 5 and 1; day three, 6 and 8; day four, 15 and 8.