Persistence paid off for Kevin Hall (Ventura, Calif./Bowie, Md.), when his third bid for an Olympic slot was a winner in the Finn class of the US Olympic Team Trials-Sailing being held in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Hall had previously finished second at the ’96 Olympic Trials in the Laser, and second in the 2000 Olympic Trials in the 49er class. Undeniably, the fact that Hall only picked up sailing the Finn within the last year speaks volumes about the talent that has made him a noteworthy sailor since he won his first world championship in 1986. By winning the first four races of the Trials, conducted from Lauderdale Yacht Club, Hall established a commanding lead in the 23-boat Finn fleet. Over the remaining races, he would cross the finish line first an additional five times, including the 16^th and final race of the series — which he did not have to sail. Although Hall picked up a DSQ in race seven for an on-the-water infraction, he never finished a race out of the top-four.

Heading into today, he had a comfortable 21-point cushion separating him from his closest competitor, Geoff Ewenson (Annapolis, Md./Newport, R.I.), and with a third-place finish in the opening race today, Hall mathematically secured his win of the Trials. The win of the final race of the series gave him a low score of 26 points, to the 53 points belonging to Ewenson after he placed 4-6 today. Eric Oetgen (Savannah, Ga.) posted finishes of 1-3 for 55 points to take third overall, just one point over Bryan Boyd (Edgewater, Md.) who finished 5-8.

Down the coast, light air once more kept the 49er, Tornado and Ynlging fleets postponed ashore, until when, at the stroke of noon, the flag came down and all three fleets headed out on Biscayne Bay.

In the opening race today for the Yngling fleet, with just four boatlengths to spare, Carol Cronin (Jamestown, R.I.), Liz Filter (Stevensville, Md.) and Nancy Haberland (Annapolis, Md.) crossed the finish line first and secured their place on the USA’s 2004 Olympic Team. That winning finish made them mathematically unbeatable, and they elected to sit out race 16 as the remaining five teams fought through the last race to determine the final standings for the fleet. Counting seven points for the DNS (did not start) in the last race, which they then discarded along with their worst placing in the series, a fifth in race four, Cronin, Filter and Haberland won with a low score of 31 points. Hannah Swett (New York, N.Y./Jamestown, R.I.) with Joan Touchette (Newport, R.I.) and Melissa Purdy (Tiburon, Calif.) finished 4-3 to retain second overall on 36 points. Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wisc.), Carrie Howe (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) kept third place overall after finishes of 2-4 gave them 38 points. Jody Swanson (Buffalo, N.Y.), Cory Sertl (Rochester, N.Y.) and Elizabeth Kratzig (Miami Fla./Houston, Texas), who were tied on points yesterday with Betsy Alison (Newport, R.I.), Lee Icyda (Stuart, Fla.) and Suzy Leech (Annapolis, Md.), prevailed in that battle. Their win of the final race of the series, combined with a third in the day‚s first race to give them 41 points to the 44 earned by Alison, Icyda and Leech after placing 5-2 today.

Cronin and Filter have been teammates in the Yngling for three and a half years, adding Haberland to the mix only a few months ago. To win the series, held from Key Biscayne Yacht Club, they had to beat two teams that had won Yngling world championships in 2003: Swett, Touchette and Purdy won the women’s world championship in Spain, while Alison, Icyda and Leech won the open world championship in Germany. Not only will Cronin, Filter and Haberland get to compete in Athens, but they will do so in the event making its Olympic debut at the 2004 Summer Games.

The 49er class also saw their champions decided before the final race of the day. Tim Wadlow (San Diego, Calif.) and Pete Spaulding (Miami, Fla.) opened the day by winning their 10^th race of the series and followed that with a second place finish. That performance allowed them to take a DNS (did not sail) score for the final race of the series, which they then dropped, for a total of 48 points. Dalton Bergan (Seattle, Wash.) and Zack Maxam (Coronado, Calif.) posted finishes of 2-1-1 to move back into second overall on 59 points, while Andy Mack (White Salmon, Wash.) and Adam Lowry (San Francisco, Calif.) dropped back one spot in the overall standings — to third — on 64 points after finishes of 3-3-4.

After trading wins yesterday with Lars Guck (Bristol, R.I.) and Jonathan Farrar (Niantic, Conn.), two-time Olympians John Lovell (New Orleans, La.) and Charlie Ogletree (Houston, Texas) put the hammer down in today’s first race, turning a sizeable lead into a win. When Guck and Farrar crossed the finish line fifth, Lovell and Ogletree became mathematically unbeatable. Both teams elected to sit out the final race of the series, and the winners collected 16 net points to the 24 points netted by Guck and Farrar. Robbie Daniel (Clearwater, Fla.) and Enrique Rodriguez (Miami, Fla.) placed 3-3 to retain third place overall with 38 points.

In Europe class, Meg Gaillard (Pelham, N.Y./Jamestown, R.I.) has gone from series leader to series winner after crossing the finish line first in both races today at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials-Sailing being run from Lauderdale Yacht Club. That performance turned her lock on the lead position into a mathematically unbeatable low score with two races remaining in the planned 16-race event. Gaillard can easily afford to sit out the final two races of the series, even though doing so adds 15 points to her score for each race in which she takes a DNS (did not start). Those penalty points then get discarded courtesy of the scoring system that allows competitors to drop their two worst finishes.

Gaillard set the pace from the outset of the regatta, only failing once to cross the finish line first — in race 10 — when she finished second to Kathleen Tocke (Buffalo, N.Y./Newport, R.I.). She and two other sailors were over the starting line early, an infraction which required them to restart properly, leaving Gaillard with some ground to make up. She was in fifth place in the 14-boat Europe fleet at the windward mark, third at the leeward mark, and second at the finish.

"I learned a bit every time, which definitely helped," replied Gaillard when asked how this Olympic Trials (her third) differed from the two previous Trials in which she finished fourth (the 1996 Trials in the 470 Women’s event), and second (the 2000 Trials in the Europe class). Of her competitors in Ft. Lauderdale she noted that she had to work hard as "with all the training the girls have done, they have closed the gap."

For complete results: www.ussailing.org/olympics/OlympicT...

Info Jan Harley, Media Media #media Pro Int’l