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Monday, April 17, 2000
Myrdal sails into
Associated Press
Olympic GamesSAN FRANCISCO -- Kailua's John Myrdal claimed a spot on the U.S. Olympic team by wrapping up victories in sailing events on a cold, rainy Sunday.
He joined Russ Silvestri, Courtenay Becker Dey and the team of Mark Reynolds and Magus Liljedahl as winners of the four classes being contested during the 10-day Olympic trials that ended this weekend on San Francisco Bay.
Some 113 competitors took part in the trials, which covered the Europe, Finn, Laser and Star classes.
Myrdal, a 1989 graduate of Lutheran High, captured the U.S. spot in the Laser class. He held off Mark Mendelblatt of St. Petersburg, Fla., a silver medalist at the 1999 Pan Am Games, to win the berth.
Silvestri, of Tiburon, Calif., led the 26-boat Finn class throughout a 15-race series. Silvestri, the 1999 national champion and a Pan Am Games silver medalist, edged second-place finisher Mark Herrmann of Bothell, Wash., by four points.
Only the top finisher in each class makes the Olympic team, and even that person is not assured of going to the 2000 Sydney Games.
Hawaii's Andrew Lewis, a junior at Assets School, finished 21st in the Laser trials.
Myrdal's wife, Danielle, was fifth in the Europe Class.
Silvestri, who has competed in four previous Olympic trials and was on the 1988 U.S. Olympic squad as an alternate, still must gain a berth at Sydney based on placing at the world championships in England in early June.
Dey, skipped yesterday's competition in the women's single-handed Europe class after wrapping up her spot on Saturday.
She was a bronze medalist in that class at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Also clinching a spot on Saturday were Star class sailors Reynolds, of San Diego, and Liljedahl, of Miami. Reynolds was an Olympic silver medalist in 1988 and a gold medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, but finished eighth at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
