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SeanAUS120 said..
SOLID couple of races! Had to stay up late but they ended up sneaking in some races as the wind got up later...Grae is up to 4TH !! Lots of the guys deep in the field ended up winning races today so that's tweaked the top places a bit.

I saw those results late here in Perth - a first and a second - way to represent Grae - looking solid to qualify into the finals (if i understand the format correctly)

Just $700 if you want a high res version of these!

www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?events=776138951&family=editorial&phrase=paris%20sailing&recency=last72hours&sort=newest

Another race! GRAE IS NOW FIRST OVERALL.. !!

Where you end up at the end of the opening series is important actually. Even though the Medal series is all-in from the Top 10, the 1st place guy at the end of the series doesn't need to sail the opening Medal races; so they are guaranteed the final medal placing race (ie, you can't drop from 1st to 10th etc).

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SeanAUS120 said..
Another race! GRAE IS NOW FIRST OVERALL.. !!

Where you end up at the end of the opening series is important actually. Even though the Medal series is all-in from the Top 10, the 1st place guy at the end of the series doesn't need to sail the opening Medal races; so they are guaranteed the final medal placing race (ie, you can't drop from 1st to 10th etc).

How insane is this - 1st. It seems like the windier it gets the more Grae sticks to the top of the fleet - just checking weather forecasts for the next few days / finals

If he makes the finals... the wind looks like a good 15 knots late on Friday in Marseille

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SeanAUS120 said..
Just $700 if you want a high res version of these!

www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?events=776138951&family=editorial&phrase=paris%20sailing&recency=last72hours&sort=newest

Wow you aren't joking, that's ridiculous

OMG, that is insane! What a fantastic effort!

9Now we can search for sailing and there are a bunch of highlights.
www.9now.com.au/sailing-olympic-games-paris-2024/2024/clips
but only skiffs seem to have full replays.

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SeanAUS120 said..

Chris 249 said..
So the women are doing the marathon and have hit a light patch where they've been off the foils for ages and doing about 1.4 to 2 knots. The odd thing is that they are not pumping furiously as in RSX, IMCO etc to try to get through the light wind area. What's the go? Do they just go sideways when pumped? I would have thought they'd have reacted OK since the foils are so big.

As I write this the race has been abandoned.

It's like having bricks tied to your fin. The foil is such an anchor you can barely move when you aren't in the air. Pumping doesn't help much!

Thanks for the info - I thought it was just that I was crap at pumping a foiler, I'm glad that everyone has the same problem! :-)

I see my plan of not watching Grae when he's racing is working as he is now up to first.
I watched the full replay of the races today on 9Now and he sailed well. Fingers crossed he can keep this form going and win the whole thing.

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Maddlad said..
I see my plan of not watching Grae when he's racing is working as he is now up to first.
I watched the full replay of the races today on 9Now and he sailed well. Fingers crossed he can keep this form going and win the whole thing.

How??? I can get some races as a full but most are 3 min highlights

THere are also some of the top PWA racers in that fleet. Even more impressive!!!

So exciting to see an Aussie smashing it on the world stage. Would love to se Grae at the pwa too if that's on his radar

Without criticising the PWA guys, this does seem to be more clear evidence that the Olympians are at least as good. There's more young sailors feeding into the Olympic "stream", there's more money, more coaches and more active sailors on the world scene in the Olympic class than in the PWA.

Just to make it clear this is NOT knocking the PWA guys, but the fact that they get more industry promotion from their sponsors seems to make many people think that they are better than the Olympians, and there is no logical reason at all why they should be.

Also, while it would be great to see Grae take it all, generally it takes experience in at least one Olympics before a sailor gets the win. That's not knocking Grae's outstanding effort, it's just that he's got a huge mountain to climb. The fact that he wasn't a big favourite before the Games could be helping reduce the pressure, though.

OFFS.....I just read that there was no provision for sailors to drop the women's marathon despite the fact that the race was abandoned and that there was no provision for it to be shortened. That may not change the placings, but it probably will since now everyone has one less drop.

It's weird how that was allowed to happen, since its an obvious issue. Either the race should be ignored if it was not finished, or they should have been able to shorten it. This is a form of windsurfer racing that has been around since the very first world title in the sport, how could WS have been so ignorant?

One reason this is annoying is that World Sailing is now refusing to allow windsurfer classes to choose what rules to race under. If they can't oversee the Olympics without a stuff up like this, then they have no right to tell far more experienced classes what to do.

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Chris 249 said..
Without criticising the PWA guys, this does seem to be more clear evidence that the Olympians are at least as good. There's more young sailors feeding into the Olympic "stream", there's more money, more coaches and more active sailors on the world scene in the Olympic class than in the PWA.

Just to make it clear this is NOT knocking the PWA guys, but the fact that they get more industry promotion from their sponsors seems to make many people think that they are better than the Olympians, and there is no logical reason at all why they should be.

Also, while it would be great to see Grae take it all, generally it takes experience in at least one Olympics before a sailor gets the win. That's not knocking Grae's outstanding effort, it's just that he's got a huge mountain to climb. The fact that he wasn't a big favourite before the Games could be helping reduce the pressure, though.

My hot take on this having raced in both fleets is that the Olympic guys are far better overall sailors: fitter, better conditioned, better tactical skills. They have access to more resources and more funding so can spend more time training the right things.

Does that translate to winning the PWA? Not really. Any Olympic guys who had a crack at PWA were pretty decent but they can't access the gear that you need to win. PWA is about equipment tuning and honestly its a bit of a cartel in each team what you can get access to. I was on the Starboard Dream Team but when you roll in to Thailand to pickup some boards I can assure you mine were a lot heavier than Dunkerbecks. If you're the top rider on your brand the gear is designed for YOU and you get the best masts and best fins and a couple of different rocker lines of boards that you can test out in different water conditions. You can say whatever you want about the PWA but peak fitness isn't as important in a 4 minute slalom sprint than it is in a 14 minute course race that requires pumping.

IQ Foil is probably the first time we've ever seen Olympic guys and PWA guys go head to head. There are 4 regular PWA guys in Paris. Results are mixed; but they are up there!

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ka43 said..
THere are also some of the top PWA racers in that fleet. Even more impressive!!!

Johan Soe
Sebastian Kordell
Ethan Westera
Rytis Jasiunas
Mateus Isaac

Quite a few PWA guys heavily campaigned to go but were beaten by another sailor: Maciek Rutkowski, Matteo Iachino etc

IQFoil is definitely a SUCCESS in terms of uniting the windsurfing fleets.

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SeanAUS120 said..

Chris 249 said..
Without criticising the PWA guys, this does seem to be more clear evidence that the Olympians are at least as good. There's more young sailors feeding into the Olympic "stream", there's more money, more coaches and more active sailors on the world scene in the Olympic class than in the PWA.

Just to make it clear this is NOT knocking the PWA guys, but the fact that they get more industry promotion from their sponsors seems to make many people think that they are better than the Olympians, and there is no logical reason at all why they should be.

Also, while it would be great to see Grae take it all, generally it takes experience in at least one Olympics before a sailor gets the win. That's not knocking Grae's outstanding effort, it's just that he's got a huge mountain to climb. The fact that he wasn't a big favourite before the Games could be helping reduce the pressure, though.

My hot take on this having raced in both fleets is that the Olympic guys are far better overall sailors: fitter, better conditioned, better tactical skills. They have access to more resources and more funding so can spend more time training the right things.

Does that translate to winning the PWA? Not really. Any Olympic guys who had a crack at PWA were pretty decent but they can't access the gear that you need to win. PWA is about equipment tuning and honestly its a bit of a cartel in each team what you can get access to. I was on the Starboard Dream Team but when you roll in to Thailand to pickup some boards I can assure you mine were a lot heavier than Dunkerbecks. If you're the top rider on your brand the gear is designed for YOU and you get the best masts and best fins and a couple of different rocker lines of boards that you can test out in different water conditions. You can say whatever you want about the PWA but peak fitness isn't as important in a 4 minute slalom sprint than it is in a 14 minute course race that requires pumping.

IQ Foil is probably the first time we've ever seen Olympic guys and PWA guys go head to head. There are 4 regular PWA guys in Paris. Results are mixed; but they are up there!

Having raced in IQ Foil at international level I Couldn't agree more.

They are racing Course Racing today, but doesn't appear to be on the TV (the cameras are on the Mens Dinghy course unfortunately).

Grae is Mr Consistent. Still in #1.

MEDAL SERIES EXPLAINER.

Tomorrow is the medal series and this is how it works. If Grae hangs on to 1st at the end of today he is guaranteed a medal as he can't be knocked out of 3rd.

Format = 3 races (Quarterfinal, Semifinal, Final)

Quarterfinal:
Positions 4 - 10 from opening series

Semifinal:
Positions 2-3 from opening series + Top 2 from Quarterfinal (so 4 guys in the race)

Final:
Position 1 from opening series + Top 2 from Semifinal (so, 3 guys in the race, so everyone in this race is guaranteed a medal)


So even though this is a sudden knockout series, and it is possible for a sailor to go from 10th to 1st (it happened at the Test event Grae was at a few weeks back!), generally the leading boat has some protection and only has to sail 1 race.

HE'S DONE IT.

OPENING SERIES COMPLETE: 1ST OVERALL = GRAE MORRIS.

Tomorrow he sails only 1 medal race (the final) which means he is GUARANTEED a medal - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a phenomenal result! Well done Grae! Thanks for explaining the way it works from here on in Sean, that's going to make for some exciting racing through the quarterfinals, semifinals and into the final.

F.......... Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice interview on 9 this morning. Thankfully not that idiot Stefanovic but someone with a clue.

The first five are so close, what a luxury to go straight to the final, good luck Grae!

Great news re the final.

Hopefully Aussie Gold and NZ Silver!

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SeanAUS120 said..

Chris 249 said..
Without criticising the PWA guys, this does seem to be more clear evidence that the Olympians are at least as good. There's more young sailors feeding into the Olympic "stream", there's more money, more coaches and more active sailors on the world scene in the Olympic class than in the PWA.

Just to make it clear this is NOT knocking the PWA guys, but the fact that they get more industry promotion from their sponsors seems to make many people think that they are better than the Olympians, and there is no logical reason at all why they should be.

Also, while it would be great to see Grae take it all, generally it takes experience in at least one Olympics before a sailor gets the win. That's not knocking Grae's outstanding effort, it's just that he's got a huge mountain to climb. The fact that he wasn't a big favourite before the Games could be helping reduce the pressure, though.

My hot take on this having raced in both fleets is that the Olympic guys are far better overall sailors: fitter, better conditioned, better tactical skills. They have access to more resources and more funding so can spend more time training the right things.

Does that translate to winning the PWA? Not really. Any Olympic guys who had a crack at PWA were pretty decent but they can't access the gear that you need to win. PWA is about equipment tuning and honestly its a bit of a cartel in each team what you can get access to. I was on the Starboard Dream Team but when you roll in to Thailand to pickup some boards I can assure you mine were a lot heavier than Dunkerbecks. If you're the top rider on your brand the gear is designed for YOU and you get the best masts and best fins and a couple of different rocker lines of boards that you can test out in different water conditions. You can say whatever you want about the PWA but peak fitness isn't as important in a 4 minute slalom sprint than it is in a 14 minute course race that requires pumping.

IQ Foil is probably the first time we've ever seen Olympic guys and PWA guys go head to head. There are 4 regular PWA guys in Paris. Results are mixed; but they are up there!

Wow, that's really interesting, and kudo to you for being so balanced.

A deciding race with only 3 competitors is going to be real differenr/interesting, especially compared with the chaos of heaps of sailors on the course.

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kato said..

Maddlad said..
I see my plan of not watching Grae when he's racing is working as he is now up to first.
I watched the full replay of the races today on 9Now and he sailed well. Fingers crossed he can keep this form going and win the whole thing.

How??? I can get some races as a full but most are 3 min highlights

On the 9Now app if you search under the heading Sailing, they had some full races and some highlights.

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Maddlad said..

kato said..

Maddlad said..
I see my plan of not watching Grae when he's racing is working as he is now up to first.
I watched the full replay of the races today on 9Now and he sailed well. Fingers crossed he can keep this form going and win the whole thing.

How??? I can get some races as a full but most are 3 min highlights

On the 9Now app if you search under the heading Sailing, they had some full races and some highlights.

Ta but 3 mins of highlights for a full race is pretty poor. PWA can replay full races.