In a great sail-off for the Bronze medal in the women's match racing between Finland And Russia it came down to a nail-biting protest after race 4. In a close contest that went to the line in each race, Finland crossed the finish line in race 4 overlapped with the Russian boat who had a protest flag flying. After 30 minutes of discussion on the jury boat RIB the decision went to Finland and the bronze was theirs.
The Finns, Silja Lehtinen, Silja Kanerva and Mikaela Wulff, won the first match overtaking Ekaterina Skudina, Elena Syuzeva and Elena Oblova of Russia on the final run. Russia pulled to back with a win in the second match, then Finland took the lead again after catching and passing the Russians in another downwind photo-finish.
With match-point to the Finns it was a tight start at the pin end with both boats crowding the line. Finland led until a late charge by the Russians meant they crossed the line overlapped once more but with the Finns just taking it.
Celebrations were put on hold while the two skippers boarded the jury boat for the protest meeting which hinged on the Finnish boat being over the line at the start. After calling for and looking at video footage, the decision was to clear Finland of the OCS and the race 4 victory stood and Silja Lehtinen, Silja Kanerva and Mikaela Wulff of Finland won bronze by 3 races to 1.
G New
11 August 2012 14:39