Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn of Canada compete in the Star Men's Keelboat race on the Leighton Course on December 12, 2011 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)Mark Dadswell/Getty Images
Canadians Richard Clarke and Tyler Bjorn have qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games next summer.
The Canadian duo finished 10th in the fleet racing after 10 races. There are actually tied with the ninth-place German team of Polgar and Koy, who also have 99 points. Ties are broken based on who finished ahead in the last race.
This result puts them in the ninth-country position. Spots for the top 11 countries (excluding host Britain) were available. This result also puts them in the medal race tomorrow with a mathematical chance to move into seventh spot, but they will have to be first or second in the race and have the others ahead of them do poorly. Eighth place is also within reach as the French boat, currently eighth, is only one point ahead going in to the weekend.
Clarke had wanted to finish higher. "Finishing 10th in the fleet racing was just a little too close for comfort," he said. "We have to finish in the top 10 here under the Canadian trials system to auto qualify and we just got in under the wire."
"We will have to reassess after the regatta to see where we can improve but our focus is still on improving our position in [Saturday's]medal race," Bjorn said.
Clarke said that they felt a little slow at times. The pair will soon have a new boat, which is on its way to Europe, for the spring events there and some training at the Olympic Regatta site.
Clarke and Bjorn's primary training partners will be the Brazilian team of Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada. The Brazilian pair dominated in the fleet racing and is in first going into the medal race with an 18-point lead. They would have to finish last and the second-place U.S. team finish first to lose the championship.
This will be Clarke's fifth trip to the Olympics and Bjorn's first, but not the first for Bjorn's family. Both his father and his brother are Olympians in the sport of sailing. Brother Kai sailed with Bruce MacDonald in 2000 in Sydney and father Peter sailed with Ian Bruce at the Games in Munich in 1972.
Special to The Globe and Mail