SAILING: US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Member Anna Tunnicliffe Wins Gold at French Olympic Sailing SAILING: US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Member Anna Tunnicliffe Wins Gold at French Olympic Sailing Week in Hyères, France.
Photo: Laser Radial Sail Melbourne: Brett Crockford/Sport the Library - Anna Tunnicliffe of the USA
Portsmouth, R.I. (April 24, 2009) - US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics member Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) has done it again: today, she won another gold medal at a major international regatta in the Laser Radial. This time around, Tunnicliffe showed her dominance in Hyères, France, site of French Olympic Sailing Week - the fourth event on the ISAF Sailing World Cup circuit. The 2008 Olympic gold medalist has now won her third ISAF Sailing World Cup event.
Tunnicliffe won the event in today's medal race after a slow start in the regatta. Throughout most of the week, Tunnicliffe had been gaining ground on the leaders and today she showed why she's the world's top Laser Radial sailor with a decisive performance when it mattered most. Going into today's medal race, Tunnicliffe was in second place and needed to sustain her momentum of the last few days and finish ahead of fleet leader Veronika Fenclova (CZE) to take the top spot at today's medal ceremony. In the end, Tunnicliffe crossed the finish line in third place, while Fenclova finished sixth.
"It was a mentally draining week but I was able to stay focused 100 percent," said Tunnicliffe after today's medal ceremony. On what helped her get the edge on the water today, Anna said: "I wanted to win. I wanted to win this regatta even before getting to France. I felt like I was in good shape going on the water today and all I needed to do was sail my own race and keep one boat between me and Veronika (Fenclova)."
Tunnicliffe will now head back home to Plantation, Fla., for a bit of rest and to do some match racing. Next month, she will go to Medemblik, The Netherlands, for the next stop on the ISAF Sailing World Cup circuit.
Stuart McNay (Newton, Mass.) and Graham Biehl (San Diego, Calif.) - sailing in the highly competitive74-boat men's 470 fleet - were ranked number one in the ISAF Sailing World Cup standings going into the regatta. With a fourth consecutive top ten finish in an ISAF World Cup event - they finished in 9th place overall today after earning 8th place in the medal race - it looks like they will retain their top spot in the rankings, while other countries' teams are inching closer.
USSTAG members came very close to qualifying for today's medal race in two other classes. Molly Carapiet (Belvedere, Calif.) and Molly O'Bryan Vandemoer (Redwood City, Calif.) finished in 12th place overall in the women's 470 class, missing the cut-off for the medal race by just two spots. The team sailed a strong regatta (their best finish at a regatta in Europe since the busy European spring/summer season started), twice finishing a race in the top three of the 33-boat fleet. USSTAG member Bryan Boyd (Annapolis, Md.), sailing in the Finn class, also came very close to qualifying for the medal race,
