Sailors finally catch the wind at Pan Am Games
(CNS Local Life): After two days of cancellations due to lack of wind, Cayman sailor Jesse Jackson finally got to compete Monday, 5 August, but finished last out of the 22 taking part in the first laser standard race at the Pan American Games in Peru, moving up two places in the second race.
“Today wasn’t the best and I was kind of disappointed,” Jackson said at the end of the day, which included a two-hour delay to the start, due to light winds. When the first race finally began, he executed a “perfect start, but after the start I got some nerves in me and nerves really killed my performance”.
Noting the quality of the competition, Jackson said, “In this fleet you need to be on your top game and everything needs to be perfect or else the guys will just pass you, so that’s what happened today…I got kind of frustrated, and frustration and nerves kicked in which is not a good combination.”
The sailors then had to wait two hours in Paracas Bay before their second race of the day. “When we started the second race I was kind of nervous still, nerves were still kicking in, and memories of the last race were still there, and sadly it almost was a little bit of a repeat,” Jackson said.
Despite his disappointing start, Jackson remains optimistic, explaining “there was a lot to take away from today. Now the nerves are gone…we have a lot more races to go so anything can happen.”
The sailors must complete a total of 10 qualifying races, with three scheduled for Tuesday, 6 August, plus three more the following day, and another two on Thursday. The top 50% of the fleet will progress to the medal race, which is scheduled for Friday, 9 August. To advance to the final, the athletes must collect as few points as possible, with the first boat to finish getting one point, the second boat getting two points and down the line.
“I’m looking forward to tomorrow, as tomorrow is a new day, a new race,” Jackson said. “Tomorrow should be a really good day. We’re looking for a little bit more breeze, quicker in the morning so we should be able to get three races in tomorrow. So even though today was not the best, I took away a lot.”
Heavier winds are predicted for Tuesday, with the races scheduled to start an hour earlier at 11am.
