- 2016 Rio Summer Olympics games: Four more golds on a busy day in Guanabara Bay
- 8/17/16
Four more golds on a busy day in Guanabara Bay
In a packed programme of medal races at the Marina da Gloria, on Rio’s Guanabara Bay, the Netherlands' Marit Bouwmeester won gold in the women's Laser Radial, as Tom Burton of Australia won the men’s Laser; the Nacra 17 title went to Argentinian pair Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli, while Giles Scott took gold in the Finn class.
Dutchwoman Marit Bouwmeester won an exciting and closely contested medal race in the women’s Laser Radial class, that saw Ireland's Annalise Murphy slip past Denmark's Anne-Marie Rindom to take silver, leaving the Dane to pick up the bronze.
“I don't think there is such thing as a flying Dutchwoman, but I'm very proud to represent Holland, it's a great sports nation,” said Bouwmeester. “I think it's been a long time since Dutch sailing won a gold medal, so I'm very proud of it.
Irishwoman Murphy, who narrowly missed out on the podium at London 2012, said she was thrilled to be able to put that disappointment behind her. "It's incredible, I was pretty heartbroken after London, I had been in medal position all week. So this week, to be in medal position again, it's been incredible.”
Australia's Tom Burton used a tense pre-start battle to snatch the gold medal from Croatia's Tonci Stipanovic in the men’s Laser, after the latter had topped the leaderboard throughout the 10 previous tests.
Both went into the medal race sure of a top-two finish, only the order was unclear. Stipanovic, forced by Burton into an illegal bump with the Australian boat, had to take a penalty turn and finished ninth, which meant he finished up with silver rather than gold.
Bronze went to New Zealand's Sam Meech, who managed a third in the medal race, which was just enough to end local favourite Robert Scheidt's hopes of a record sixth sailing medal in six Olympic games. Incredibly, it was the first time he had missed out on the podium since Atlanta 1996.
Scheidt, 43 and Brazil's greatest Olympian, produced arguably one of the best races of his life to win the medal race, but that was not enough to slip past Meech in the overall points total.
Reflecting on his victory, Burton said: “It was the venue that definitely benefits an all-round sailor… Consistency was key.”
Silver medallist Stipanovic said the disappointment of missing out on gold, was less than the pride in winning Croatia’s first ever sailing medal. “The feeling of losing on the last day is not nice,” he admitted. “But I'm really happy with my medal. It's the first medal in sailing in history of Croatian sport which is really key and I knew a few days ago already that I did a good job.”|