Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Laser

The Laser was a sailing event on the Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics program in Qingdao International Sailing Centre.^[2] Eleven races (last one a medal race) were scheduled. Only ten races were completed including the medal race due to lack of wind. 43 sailors, on 43 boats, from 43 nations competed.^[3] Ten boats qualified for the medal race.^[4][5]

Men's Laser^[1] at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Line drawing of the Laser
Venue	Qingdao International Sailing Centre
Dates	First race: 12 August 2008 (2008-08-12) Last race: 19 August 2008 (2008-08-19)
Competitors	43 from 43 nations
Medalists
Paul Goodison  Great Britain Vasilij Žbogar  Slovenia Diego Romero  Italy
← 2004 2012 →

Race schedule^[1][6]

●

Practice race

●

Race on Yellow

●

Race on Green

●

Medal race on Yellow

Date	August
	7 Thu	8 Fri	9 Sat	10 Sun	11 Mon	12 Tue	13 Wed	14 Thu	15 Fri	16 Sat	17 Sun	18 Mon	19 Tue	20 Wed	21 Thu	22 Fri	23 Sat	24 Sun
Men's Laser					●	2	1	No wind	1	1	1	3	●

Course areas and course configurations ^[7]

For the Laser course areas A (Yellow) and C (Green) were used. The location (36°1'26"’N, 120°26'52"E) points to the center of the 0.6nm radius Yellow course area and the location (36°2'44"N, 120°28'9"E) points to the center of the 0.75nm radius Green course area. The target time for the course was about 60 minutes for the races and 30 minutes for the medal race. The race management could choose from several course configurations.

•  

  Course Areas

•  

  70° Trapezoid Outer Course (O)

•  

  70° Trapezoid Inner Course (I)

•  

  Windward - Leeward Course (W)

Outer courses

• O1: START – 1 – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3p – FINISH
• O2: START – 1 – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3p – FINISH
• O3: START – 1 – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3s/3p – 2 – 3p – FINISH

Inner courses

• I1: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 2 – 3p – FINISH
• I2: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 2 – 3p – FINISH
• I3: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 2 – 3p – FINISH

Windward-Leeward courses

• W2: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – FINISH
• W3: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – FINISH
• W4: START – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – 4s/4p – 1 – FINISH

Weather conditions

In the lead up to the Olympics many questioned the choice of Qingdao as a venue with very little predicted wind. During the races the wind was pretty light and quite unpredictable. Due to lack of wind (< 1.6 knots) one racing day had to be cancelled and the medal race needed to be postponed to the next day.^[8]

Final results^[9][10]

Results of individual races

Pos	Helmsman	Country	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	MR	Tot	Pts
	Paul Goodison	Great Britain	15^†	2	15	1	9	7	1	4	6	9	78.0	63.0
	Vasilij Žbogar	Slovenia	24^†	4	14	6	2	11	18	1	11	2	95.0	71.0
	Diego Romero	Italy	6	3	5	36^†	10	15	11	9	10	3	111.0	75.0
4	Gustavo Lima	Portugal	5	8	3	27^†	17	6	16	8	3	5	103.0	76.0
5	Andrew Murdoch	New Zealand	2	5	40^†	20	24	5	5	17	1	1	121.0	81.0
6	Rasmus Myrgren	Sweden	7	16	8	2	8	13	22^†	7	2	10	105.0	83.0
7	Julio Alsogaray	Argentina	1	12	10	28^†	14	1	2	31	16	4	123.0	92.0
8	Jean-Baptiste Bernaz	France	19	1	12	9	6	10	30	5	34^†	6	138.0	104.0
9	Mike Leigh	Canada	13	23	26	5	4	3	28^†	2	19	7	137.0	109.0
10	Kristian Ruth	Norway	10	11	17	10	3	8	13	21	38^†	8	147.0	109.0
11	Igor Lisovenko	Russia	11	14	4	8	7	26	37^†	19	7		133.0	96.0
12	Luka Radelić	Croatia	26^†	15	7	21	1	21	3	16	17		127.0	101.0
13	Pavlos Kontides	Cyprus	8	7	24	14	5	12	14	29	35^†		148.0	113.0
14	Javier Hernández	Spain	17	25	11	3	28	BFD 44^†	19	13	5		165.0	121.0
15	Evangelos Cheimonas	Greece	22	21	9	11	DSQ 44^†	BFD 44	9	6	8		174.0	130.0
16	Maciej Grabowski	Poland	9	19	22	18	16	23	32^†	20	4		163.0	131.0
17	Alejandro Foglia	Uruguay	12	27	33	7	36^†	4	6	26	18		169.0	133.0
18	Kemal Muslubaş	Turkey	4	42^†	27	19	15	27	7	15	32		188.0	146.0
19	Andreas Geritzer	Austria	28	6	2	30	20	BFD 44^†	DNC 44	18	9		201.0	157.0
20	Shen Sheng	China	40^†	35	6	4	37	14	10	28	25		199.0	159.0
21	Thomas Barrows	Virgin Islands	20	28	20	24	26	31^†	15	10	21		195.0	164.0
22	Tom Slingsby	Australia	21	22	21	22	35	20	12	11	40^†		204.0	164.0
23	Anders Nyholm	Denmark	18	26	19	15	19	BFD 44^†	27	27	13		208.0	164.0
24	Deniss Karpak	Estonia	16	20	41^†	37	38	2	4	35	14		207.0	166.0
25	Andrew Campbell	United States	14	18	1	26	32	BFD 44^†	8	DSQ 44	31		218.0	174.0
26	Matías del Solar	Chile	3	34^†	30	25	21	9	25	23	DNE 44		214.0	180.0
27	Bruno Fontes	Brazil	31	17	31	12	12	24	35	22	39^†		223.0	184.0
28	Ha Jee-min	South Korea	23	33	37^†	31	13	17	17	34	22		227.0	190.0
29	Zsombor Berecz	Hungary	27	31	36	23	18	22	24	14	37^†		232.0	195.0
30	Pierre Collura	Finland	25	10	18	41^†	23	25	20	33	DNE 44		239.0	198.0
31	Martin Trčka	Czech Republic	29	36	38	13	29	19	26	DNF 44^†	12		246.0	202.0
32	Allan Julie	Seychelles	33	37^†	13	33	27	16	21	30	30		240.0	203.0
33	Juan Ignacio Maegli	Guatemala	DSQ 44^†	9	39	16	BFD 44	32	39	12	5		250.0	206.0
34	Rutger van Schaardenburg	Netherlands	32	29	34	32	25	18	38^†	25	20		253.0	215.0
35	Yoichi Iijima	Japan	36	32	16	17	31	BFD 44^†	31	DNF 44	28		279.0	235.0
36	Koh Seng Leong	Singapore	35	41	29	39	BFD 44^†	33	23	3	36		283.0	239.0
37	Christoph Bottoni	Switzerland	34	13	32	40	39	BFD 44^†	36	24	23		285.0	241.0
38	Kevin Lim	Malaysia	BFD 44^†	24	28	42	22	34	34	39	26		293.0	249.0
39	José Ruíz	Venezuela	39	40^†	23	29	40	29	33	32	24		289.0	249.0
40	Raúl Aguayo	Dominican Republic	37	30	35	38^†	34	28	29	36	29		296.0	258.0
41	Marc Schmit	Luxembourg	30	39	25	35	30	35	41^†	40	33		308.0	267.0
42	Adil Mohammad	United Arab Emirates	38	38	42	43^†	11	36	42	38	27		315.0	272.0
43	Greg Douglas	Barbados	41	43^†	43	34	33	30	40	37	41		342.0	299.0

Scoring system: low-point system;
Legend:   – Qualified for medal race(s); BFD – Black flag disqualification; DNE – Non excludable disqualification; DNF – Did not finish; DPI – Discretionary penalty imposed; OCS – On the course side of the starting line; † – Discarded race not counted in the overall result;

Daily standings

 

Graph showing the daily standings in the Laser during the 2008 Summer Olympics

Further reading

• "Digital Library Collection (Official Olympic Reports 1896 - 2008)". Digital Library Collection at la84.org. la84foundation. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
• "Beijing 2008". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.

References

1. Official Report of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games • Volume II Ceremonies and Competitions: Celebration of the Games (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
2. Official Report of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games • Volume I Bid Documents and Analysis: Passion behind the Bid (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
3. The 2008 Olympic scoring system was used.
4. For the medal race the top ten boats qualified. Each position scored double points. All medal races were sailed on course area Yellow in front of the Qingdao International Sailing Centre.
5. "Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics: One Person Dinghy (Laser), Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
6. Official Report of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games • Volume III Preparation for the Games: New Beijing Great Olympics (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
7. "The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Sailing Competition: Sailing Instructions" (PDF). International Sailing Federation. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
8. "Qingdao Report - Luke Van Der Kamp" (PDF). Team GBR. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
9. Official Results book Part 3 (Sailing) (PDF). Retrieved 21 March 2014.
10. . Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2014.