Sunday was the first day of medal racing at the Olympic sailing in Weymouth and Portland. It finished with Gold for Ben Ainslie in the Finn and Silver for Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson in the Star. But both races were not without heart stopping moments for the thousands of British supporters packing the Nothe stadium area.
In the first final for the Star class event Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson fininished in the Silver medal position after Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen of Sweden turned over the British and Brazilians to snatch Gold. Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada of Brazil took the Bronze.
After that upset it was down to Ben Ainslie to sail one of the races of his life to beat the Dane Jonas Hogh-Christensen who had led the Finn event all week. With Ben concentrating on finishing in front of Hogh-Christensen it allowed the Dutch sailor, Pieter-Jan Postma, who could still mathmatically take the gold if he won the race, to get away.
At the final windward mark Postma rounded third and challenging the French and Kiwi boats ahead of him. If he could have taken second Postma would have the gold.
In trying to pass the New Zealander Dan Slater, Postma was called for a foul and had to do turns which dropped him to fifth round the final mark and accross the finish line, taking him out of the medals.
Ainslie came home safely in ninth and importantly in front of Hogh-Christensen, to take his fourth Gold medal and fifth medal in total. Hogh-Christensen won the silver and Jonathan Lobert of France the bronze.
Final overall Positions including medal Race
Finn
Gold - Ben Ainslie GBR 46 pts
Silver - Jonas Hoegh-Christensen DEN 46 pts
Bronze - Jonathan Lobert FRA 49 pts
4th Pieter-Jan Postma NED 52 pts
5th Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic CRO 55 pts
6th Vasilij Zbogar SLO 63 pts
7th Dan Slater NZL 83 pts
8th Rafael Trujillo Villar ESP 86 pts
9th Daniel Birgmark SWE 90 pts
10th Tapio Nirkko FIN 92 pts
Star
Gold - Fredrik Loof / Max Salminen SWE 32 pts
Silver - Iain Percy / Andrew Simpson GBR 34 pts
Bronze - Robert Scheidt / Bruno Prada BRA 40 pts
4th Eivind Melleby / Petter Morland Pedersen NOR 63 pts
5th Hamish Pepper / Jim Turner NZL 70 pts
6th Robert Stanjek / Frithjof Kleen GER 70 pts
7th Mark Mendelblatt / Brian Fatih USA 71 pts
8th Mateusz Kusznierewicz / Dominik Zycki POL 72 pts
9th Xavier Rohart / Pierre Alexis Ponsot FRA 86 pts
10th Peter O'Leary / David Burrows IRL 95 pts
G New
5 August 2012 16:36