FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Marni Lane
617-671-8332
401-683-0800 x671
MarniLane@ussailing.org
USA's Sally Barkow, Carrie
Howe and Debbie Capozzi
Win Silver in France
Portsmouth, R.I. (April 27, 2007) – The USA Yngling team of Sally Barkow (Chenequa, Wis.), Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) and Carrie Howe (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) will bring home yet another medal from the spring European circuit: this time a silver medal from the Semaine Olympique Française de Voile (French Sailing Week), in Hyères, France. Barkow and her team won today's final, double point medal race, after another battle with Great Britain’s team led by Sarah Ayton, who picked up the bronze. The Russian team led by Ekaterina Skudina secured their overall lead, which they held throughout the week.
"This is a great end to our month in Europe," said Barkow. "We faced some tough racing. We made some mistakes throughout the week, which caused us to learn valuable lessons for when the pressure is on. I'm glad we could have an exciting, successful medal race to finish the series."
"Good breeze and tight scores made the medal race quite exciting," said Howe. "We won the pin and sailed hard."
The big breeze that the sailors had been looking forward to all week finally reared its head late yesterday and continued today, providing the perfect conditions for an exciting finale in Hyeres. Steady winds and significant waves during the medal races translated into a different game of racing than the rest of the week. Barkow's team said they changed their tactical style to match race their competitors in order to gain positions.
"When the wind is steady and settled and there is some rhythm to the shifts, sailboat racing is a fun game of inches gained and lost, but that's not what we’ve experienced for the last five days," the team wrote in their daily newsletter. "For those without the nerve, this was fingernails-bitten-to-the-bone uncertainty."
Barkow's team is ranked the number one Yngling crew on the 2007 US Sailing Team and was named US SAILING’s 2005 Team of the Year. Barkow was also named US SAILING’s 2005 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year.
An International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Grade 1 event, Semaine Olympique Française attracted approximately 900 boats from 58 countries. The event included five days of racing culminating with today’s medal races, which followed the new Olympic format, lining up the top 10 teams in each class on the starting line on the final day of racing. Today’s medal races were sailed consecutively on a course set close to the shore to provide spectators a better view. The competition was raced in 10 of the 11 classes chosen for the 2008 Olympic Games: 49er, 470 (Men & Women), Finn, Laser, Laser Radial, Neil Pryde RS:X (Men & Women), Tornado and Yngling. In addition, racing was held for two of the three classes selected for the 2008 Paralympic Games: 2.4mR and Sonar.
For complete results, including the final standings of the other US Sailing Team members and Americans who competed in the event, please visit the event website at sof.ffvoile.net.
About US SAILING
The United States Sailing Association (US SAILING) is the national governing body for sailing. Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, the organization provides leadership for the sport of sailing in the U.S. US SAILING offers training and education programs for instructors and race officials, supports a wide range of sailing organizations and communities, issues offshore rating certificates, and provides administration and oversight of competitive sailing across the country, including National Championships and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Teams. For more information, please visit www.ussailing.org.
(End)