Rob Crane on a practice run off the coast of Weymouth in the UK recently. (Photo courtesy of Leandro Spina)
11:39 AM — Rob Crane had a much better second day on the Olympic waters off the coast of southern England Tuesday. The Darien sailor followed up a 30th place finish in Race 3 with a 28th place finish in Race 4 of the Men’s Laser event.
Crane made quite a comeback in Race 4 considering he was next to last of the 49 sailors after the second mark of the race. At the roughly halfway point in the race, he was 39th and continued to creep up as the race went on — finishing 28th, 4:04 behind the winner, Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus.
There are 10 races before the medal race on Monday, Aug. 6. Crane currently ranks 36th in the event with 135 points. The top 10 sailors make the medal race.
Points are awarded in each race: first scores one point, second scores two points, etc. After 10 races, points from the worst race are discarded. The points in the medal race are doubled, so first place gets two points, second gets four, etc., total after the medal race determines the placings.
Wednesday features two more Men’s Laser races. The first is at 7:05 a.m. EDT, the second at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
The Darien Times provided live updates of the race, as it happened, at Twitter.com/DarienTimes. You can watch a replay of the race at NBCOlympics.com, or here.
10:08 AM — Rob Crane finished 30th in Race 3 Tuesday, which moves him up to 34th overall. The 11-race event is scheduled to continue at 10:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday with Race 4.
Crane peaked at 21st at the 3rd mark of the race, which was won by Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus.
9:10 AM — Here is the link to watch the race online, but it could include any of the sailing events, several of which go on at once.
8 AM — Rob Crane of Darien ended his first day of Olympic sailing competition in 39th place overall after the first two Laser races off the southern coast of England. There are still nine more races in the Men’s Laser event, which is solo sailing.
Tuesday, like Monday, features two races. The first at 9 a.m. EDT, the second at 10:30 a.m. EDT. You can follow how Crane is doing at DarienTimes.com/Twitter, NBCOlympics.com and check back at DarienTimes.com, which will be updated after each race.
Here’s a look at Monday’s coverage.
The format is made up of an 11-race event that will take place over eight days starting July 30. On the schedule are two races a day taking place on six days in all, ending up with the final medal runs.
“The sailing event is a bit of a longer event, so in the beginning it’s important to not make mistakes,” Crane, 26, a longtime Noroton Yacht Club member, told The Darien Times earlier in July. “You can’t win within the first couple of days, but you can lose it with a couple of bad races.”
While sailing does not tend to get much TV time during the Summer Games, you should be able to see the races on NBCOlympics.com. Here is the direct link to the sailing coverage.
Here’s a link to more on sailing in the 2012 Olympics, which is held in Weymouth Bay, on the south coast of England.
Crane is also on Twitter at Twitter.com/RobCraneRacing
