Olympics: Naples' Trevor Moore, Storck fail to make 49er sailing medal race

Naples' Trevor Moore and teammate Erik Storck failed to make Wednesday's medal race in the Olympic 49er sailing in the waters off Weymouth, England, on Monday.

The top 10 teams in the overall standings after Monday's two races -- the 14th and 15th of the competition -- advanced to the medal race, but Moore and Storck finished eighth and 17th, leaving them in 15th in the overall standings.

“A couple of things didn’t go our way,” Storck told U.S. Sailing's website. "It was very close all the way through. The points may not indicate that, but we’re proud of how we performed all the way through.”

“Our journey was phenomenal and we wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Storck added. “We don’t regret anything we did and we are grateful. I was so fortunate that (Moore) chose to sail with me. We don’t believe we performed to our ability, and we truly believe we could have been medal contenders.”

Moore and Storck were as high as fourth in the first race, but were edged by less than a second by France and finished eighth.

The Americans never got going in the second race. Needing to beat Spain, Germany, Poland, Ireland and Italy to move up enough in the overall standings, they failed to beat any of them.

Moore and Storck had some momentum on Friday -- there were no races Saturday -- after finishing second, 17th and fifth. But they were 20th and 17th in the two Sunday races, dropping from 10th to 15th in the overall standings.

Moore and Storck had some bright spots -- winning the fourth race of the competition on Tuesday and placing second in the ninth race -- but were in the bottom five skiffs in seven times.

After the 15 races, points from the worst race were thrown out, and the remaining points were added together. Teams got one point for a win, two points for finishing second, etc. Moore and Storck had two 20th-place finishes, meaning they had to count one of them.

Moore, who went to grade and middle school in Naples before moving to Vermont, was the 2007 College Sailor of the Year. This was the first Olympics for Moore and Storck.

This is just the fourth Olympics for the 49er sailing class. The U.S. has won just one medal, a bronze in 2000.