Olympic Preview, Day 2

Australian Olympic Sailing Team Leader Iain Murray on what to expect from today’s racing.

Written by Iain Murray

26 July 2021

Today we have Matt Wearn (three races) and Mara Stransky (two races) back for day two of competition here at the Tokyo Olympics.

We are faced with another day of extremely tricky weather, but both Matt and Mara have been well prepared by their coaches and are ready to attack the racecourses again.

We would have preferred more stable breezes similar to the conditions we have been training in, but we are here and ready to sail the races wisely and accurately.

Today, we have exceptionally tricky weather with the breeze out of the north/north-east. At times it’ll be light and variable, but the confidence in any weather forecasting is exceptionally low because of the situation with the two severe weather systems on either side of us.

They are creating a trough between us which makes it very difficult to predict what is going on. It looks like a tricky day ahead for competitors and officials, particularly later in the afternoon.

Matt Wearn, Tokyo 2020. (Credit: Sailing Energy/World Sailing.)

Ready Steady Tokio Sailing 2019. ©PEDRO MARTINEZ/SAILING ENERGY/WORLD SAILING 21 August, 2019.

Matt Wearn (Laser). Australian Sailing Team competing at Ready Steady Tokyo (Olympic Test Event) in Enoshima, Japan. 17-22 August 2019. © Beau Outteridge / Australian Sailing Team

Mara Stransky, Tokyo 2020. (Credit: Sailing Energy/World Sailing.)

Mara Stransky. 2020 Sail Sydney (10-13 December 2020). Photo by Beau Outteridge

Mara Stransky (Laser Radial). Australian Sailing Team competing at Ready Steady Tokyo (Olympic Test Event) in Enoshima, Japan. 17-22 August 2019. (Credit: Beau Outteridge / Australian Sailing Team.)

We are expecting breezes somewhere coming from the north/north-east, in the region of nine knots at the time of Matt’s race.

Today Matt will go to the racecourse with hopefully a discard on his card already, so he will engage the fleet in a normal way that he would normally race. We expect Matt to be on full song today.

Yesterday Mara showed some glimpses of good speed and her capability of getting good starts, particularly in that first race.

As we have seen, she is more than able to put good races together, so today Mara will be rightly confident that she in in a position to make the most of the conditions and race another solid day.

Both Wearn and Stransky will be sailing on 26 July, with Wearn scheduled to commence racing at 1:05pm AEST. Race three for the Women’s One Person Dinghy (Laser) is scheduled to commence on 26 July at 3:30pm AEST. Both races will be streaming live on 7Plus.

This article was originally published by Australian Sailing.

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