Sailing: Shelter Island sailor’s Olympic journey comes to an end
After eight days and 11 races through the waters on the south coast of England, the 2012 Olympic competition for Shelter Island’s Amanda Clark and teammate Sarah Lihan came to an end Friday.
A two-time Olympian, Clark finished ninth overall sailing in the Women’s 470 race alongside Lihan. The two did not finish on the podium, but Clark did top her finish from Beijing in 2008 when she was 12th.
In the final race Friday, Clark and Lihan finished last, giving them 20 points for a net total of 98. The top 10 teams competed in Friday’s medal race — the 11th of the competition — where points where doubled. So a 10th place finish equaled 20 points. The standings for each team at the end of a race was equal to the number of points it received. The highest total was dropped and the team with the fewest points tallied together at the end was the winner. A total of 20 team competed in the 470 race.
That honor went to the New Zealand duo of Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie. They finished with a net total of 35 points and clinched the gold medal with a first-place finish in Friday’s medal race. It was the third race they won of the 11. They were second in three races.
Great Britain won the silver medal and Netherlands won the bronze.
It marked the end of a long journey for Clark and Lihan of Team Go Sail, who qualified for the Olympics on the final day of the 2011 World Championships in Perth.
Prior to this year’s competition, Clark announced that this would be her last Olympic competition. She said she hoped to continue to work with the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team in some capacity to share her knowledge and experience.
