Olympic Regatta: Lovell/Ogletree Assured of Gold or Silver

ATHENS, GREECE (August 26, 2004) - The USA's Tornado sailors John Lovell(New Orleans, La.) and Charlie Ogletree (Houston, Texas/Columbia, N.C.)secured themselves at least a silver medal today when they won the first of two races and followed up with a second-place finish. With one race to go on Saturday, Aug. 28, they are now in second overall, only three points behind the Austrians, who are the only ones that could keep the USA from gold on Saturday.

"We won the start in the first race and got a good jump on the fleet immediately," said Lovell, who led at every mark of the course. "In the second race, we did the same thing but started consolidating--covering the guys we needed to cover, in particular Austria and Argentina--and finished second.

"Saturday it's one big race for gold," continued Lovell, who counts the Austrians as one of the fastest Tornado teams in the world. "It's not going to be easy. Today they were in tenth and we thought 'we've got them!," but then, in both races, they grinded back."

Lovell said the Tornado reserve day tomorrow would be spent taking the entire boat apart and putting it back together again, to ensure that no mechanical breakdowns will foil their plans. They also will study the scores and go over all the different race scenarios that could happen. As match-racing champions (they won last year's International Catamaran Challenge Trophy), Lovell and Ogletree are ready for the one-on-one racing with Austria that might present itself.

"We have a much better drop race than the Austrians, so we have two choices," said Lovell. "We jump on them early and drive them to the back of the fleet or just go out and win. We'll make that decision on game day."