Darien's Crane 39th After First 2 Olympics Races [UPDATE]

Update 9:33 p.m.:

Rob Crane's next two Laser boat races for an Olympic gold medal continue Tuesday at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Those will be afternoon races taking place at 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. local time in Weymouth Bay on the south coast of England. Crane currently stands 39th out of 49 competitors, each from a different country, in the one-person sailboat races.

A total of 10 races will take place in the competition. They continue on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Monday.

Original article, 11:39 a.m.:

got off to a slow start Monday morning, finishing in 35th place in the first of two Laser boat races and in 42nd place in the second.

That put his overall ranking so far at 39 out of 49 competitors. Laser boat racing continues all week in waters near Weymouth, in the English Channel on the south coast of England.

In the first race, held at noon (7 a.m. Eastern Time), Juan Ignacio Maegli Aguero of Guatamala came in at first place, with a time of 57:10. Crane's 35th place finishing time was 2 minutes and 45 seconds after that.

In the second race, at 1:30 p.m., local time (8:30 a.m., Eastern Time), the winner was Tom Slingsby of Australia, with a time of 56:25. Crane's 42nd place finish was 4 minutes, 4 seconds after that.

It was a very good day for Slingsby, who finished second in the initial race and first in the second race. Maegli Aguero in contrast, won the first race but finished in 10th place in the second one.

The rankings can change enormously from race to race (here they are, as of today). Five of the racers who finished in the top 10 in the first race were not in the top 10 in the second. France dropped from third place in the first race to 21th place in the second; Singapore went from fourth place to 25th; Brazil went from 17th place to second place.