Sailing Magazine
The first day was described as follows: It was sunny and bright. It was storming and raining sideways. It was sunny and bright.
Numerous challenges were posed to the competitors in wet and windy day of action. Racing commenced with a confirmed number of 856 sailors from 63 nations competing across the ten Olympic and three Paralympic events.
Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson are competing in the 470 Men’s class and Stefano Marcia on the Men’s Laser Class.
Men’s 470
Perennial threats Luke Patience and crew Elliot Willis of the UK comfortably topped a fleet of 45 entries in the 470 class, on a challenging day, on scores of first and second.
Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson of the Republic of South Africa stand third off a 4 and a 6.
Laser Men
Robert Scheidt, winner of five medals in five Olympiads, two of them gold, described the series opener as, “Windy. Tough. What you have to do this early in the regatta is avoid the big problems.”
“In the first race there was a time on the second weather leg where we couldn’t see through the rain, couldn’t find the marks,” Scheidt said. “Finally Bruno (Fontes) saw a bit of colour out there in the grey stuff, and we both went for it, and we made big gains.”
South African Stefano Marcia finished with a very credible 41 and a much improved 25 in the 104 boat fleet to be 65th overall.
