Olympics: Kirkland Brothers Finish Race #2 In 19th
[Updated – Jesse and Zander Kirkland started the week-long competition in the Olympic 49er class at 8am this morning.
They recorded a DNF in the first race, but came back to finish 19th in the second race. The Kirkland brothers will race again tomorrow.]
Jesse and Zander Kirkland are set to see action this morning [July 30] with the first race in the Olympic 49er class starting in Weymouth and Portland at 8am Bermuda time.
The Kirkland brothers join a small group of elite sailors in the competition, as the event only allowed for 20 teams to qualify.
Competitors will contest 15 races over the next few days with points awarded depending on finishing positions in each race. Each boat is allowed to discard its worst score and the 10 boats with the lowest accumulated scores qualify for the medal race, where points scored are doubled and added to the opening series’ scores to decide the top 10 positions.
Through history Bermuda has had a number of strong finishes in Olympic sailing, with veteran sailor Peter Bromby coming very close to winning our second Olympic medal when he, along with Lee White, placed 4th at the 2000 Olympics. In addition, sailors Alan Burland and Chris Nash finished 5th in the 1984 Olympics, while Kirk Cooper, Eugene “Penny” Simmons, and Conrad Soares also placed 5th in 1964.
Bermudians may be able to cheer on another of our own today as at 4pm Bermuda time the Great Britain women’s basketball team take on Canada. Bermudian Jenaya Wade Fray is hoping to make her Olympic debut after sitting out the first game with an injury.
The Kirklands are the first of the Bermuda team to start competition, with swimmer Roy Allan Burch and long jumper Tyrone Smith to compete later this week; while equestrian Jillian Terceria and triathlete Flora Duffy will compete this weekend. See all our Olympic coverage here.
Update 8.17am: You can follow the action live on the Olympic website here.
Update 8.21am: The Olympic website is now showing the Kirklands as “DNF” for Race #1. The Kirklands rounded the first mark in 17th place 0:59 seconds behind the leaders, and were 1:08 behind the leaders after the second mark and moved up two spots to 15th, before showing as did not finish.
It is not clear at this time what exactly happened to cause them to not finish, however this is only the start of the sailing competition, and there are many more races to go.
Manu Dyen and Stéphane Christidis of France won the first race in 29.05, with Denmark’s Allan Norregaard and Peter Lang in second and Gordon Cook and and Hunter Lowden of Canada third.
Update 9.00am: The second race for the day is now underway you can follow it live on the Olympic website here. Whatever stopped the Kirlands from finishing the first race seems to not have prevented them from starting this one, they are shown as racing and presently sitting in 12th at the beginning of the race.
Update 9.20am: The Kirklands are still in, and are now sitting in 16th place. Thanks to Laurence Fox, a screencap showing the Kirklands at the start of their 2nd race is below.
Update 9.32am: The Kirklands marked their first Olympic race finish, with the provisional results showing them in 19th place. New Zealand won the race, followed by Portugal and Sweden.
The brothers are now 20th in the standings, and will resume racing tomorrow.
Update 6.09pm: The Kirklands tweeted that it was a “tough first day, but lots of racing ahead…”
Tough first day, but lots of racing ahead. Tomorrow’s another day!
— Kirkland Brothers(@KirklandBrother) July 30, 2012
Sadly first race will be thrown away. Their halyard broke during race. Better luck in the next one guys.
Great coverage of the race on BBC iplayer.
Thanks for this comment. We have not had success with getting on the BBC’s video coverage from Bermuda, so that bit of info is much appreciated!
24 streams to choose from on the iplayer. Next race about to start. VPN and a good Internet connection it’s as good as. The VSB picture!
which vpn site did you use?
MPN
Hoping they finish top 5 will put us back on the international scene. BBC online has us blacked out. Umma try BBC iplayer as well, local coverage is sloppy (and that’s a compliment)
how did you get iplayer to work? says I need to be in the UK to use it. I have tried some proxy but couldnt find any that work with java script
James, go to http://strongvpn.com/vpn_service_for_bermuda.shtml choose a package.
It works great.
Best of luck to the Kirkland Brothers!
@ Bernews – You neglected to reference Kirk Cooper’s crew for the 1964 Olympics – Eugene ‘Penny’ Simmons and Conrad Soares.
Thanks, sailing is not exactly our forte unfortunately so we appreciate that amendment, we edited to reflect and added a link.
Let’s Get this Zander & Jesse. Make up those places !! you can do it !!!
Team Bermuda !!!
Bring back the skillz from the Opti Days !!!! When you use to RACK UP SHOP !!