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Published: June 15 2012

Amanda Clark and Sarah Lihan clinched the silver medal at Skandia.

Amanda Clark and Sarah Lihan started the Skandia Sail for the Gold in 6th overall, with a chance at either silver or bronze medals. The three-lap, windward-leeward race was set up on the Nothe Course, which will be the spectator course during the Olympic Games.

The 10-boat 470 fleet started close together, but was soon out-paced by Clark and Lihan, the team Israel, and a few others. By the second beat, Clark and Lihan were neck-and-neck with the Israeli team and kept close behind. Once they got to the second windward mark rounding, the two teams were clearly ahead. Clark and Lihan won the medal race to clinch the silver medal.

“It feels great,” said Clark. “We’re pretty excited to be racing at the front of the fleet. It’s going to be amazing competition. By no means does this say this is how it’s going to stack up (next month). This is why we do this, to sail against the best in the world and to challenge ourselves.  Sarah and I have worked really hard for this. We’re psyched to take this into the Olympics.”

Although the team has been together for only 15 months, it has seen its performance advance. “I think we’re the strongest we’ve ever been,” said Lihan. “Amanda is one of the most talented skippers in the world and I’m honored to sail with her.”

Women’s Match Racing

In Women’s Match Racing, Anna Tunnicliffe, with her Team Maclaren (Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi), won two matches in the morning quarter-final match up against Silja Lehtinen (FIN). They advanced into the semi-final round against Claire Leroy and then lost the “first-to-two-wins” match up. In the petit-final match, where the third- and fourth-place teams compete for bronze, Tunnicliffe was paired against Ekaterina Skudina (RUS).

“Considering how this regatta started for us, we’re happy with our end results,” said Tunnicliffe. “We didn’t have the smoothest regatta and sometimes you have those regattas. We are very happy to come away with the bronze. We would have been happy if we made the finals, but we did the best we can and we’re psyched about it.”

Next up for the team is the ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championships at the end of the month. “We’d love to defend the championship title,” said Tunnicliffe. “It’s a good lead in regatta to the Olympics and the second biggest event of the year. We’re looking forward to having a good event and winning like we always do.”

The world #1 match racers also collected two gold medals at ISAF World Cup events, thePrincess Sofia Trophy regatta and French Olympic Sailing Week. With the bronze medal at this event, they won an overall 2011-2012 ISAF World Cup gold medal.