Aug. 12, 2008
QINGDAO, CHINA -- Old Dominion alumna and world ranked #1 Anna Tunnicliffe ('05-Plantation, Fla.) paced the fleet on the first day of her event in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She leads the Laser Radial class of the sailing event by two points after two races, finishing with a 4th and a 5th on day one. This marks the first time in Olympic history the Laser Radial is being used for the women's singlehanded event, replacing the Europe dinghy sailed from 1992-2004.
Tunnicliffe, a four-time All-American at ODU, is a medal favorite for the event and will sail eight more races before the medal round scheduled for Tuesday, August 19. She had the most consistent day, with two top five finishes and sits atop the leaderboard in an event that boasts 28 competitors. Only two other sailors in the event had even two top ten finishes.
Three other ODU alumni are sailing in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Sally Barkow and Debbie Capozzi are over halfway through their event in the Yngling class, sitting tied for third in net points with Tuesday off. Charlie Ogletree will hunt for gold in his fourth Olympic appearance starting Friday in the Tornado class.
Top Ten Scores After Day One:
Laser Radial
Name (Country) R1 R2 TOT1. Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) 4 5 92. Evi Van Acker (Belgium) 1 10 113. Sarah Steyaert (France) 11 1 124. Gintare Volungeviciute (Lithuania) 3 13 165. Sarah Blanck (Australia) 6 11 176. Mateja Petronijevic (Croatia) 8 9 177. Nathalie Brugger (Switzerland) 13 6 198. Cecilia Carranza Saroli (Argentina) 15 8 239. Penny Clark (Great Britain) 2 22 2410. Susana Romero (Spain) 18 7 25