Britain’s Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre have won gold in the 470 Women, safely negotiating the final Medal race of the 2020 Tokyo Games.
They finished fifth in the medal race after keeping a loose cover on their closest rivals for the title, France and Poland, throughout the race, which was led from start to finish by the Swiss pair, Linda Fahrni and Maja Siegenthaler.
It was this mini race between the Brits and the French and Polish boats that led to a protest filed by Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz of France, when they saw the silver medal slip away from them down the final leg.
The incident involved the rounding of the final mark where the French team alleged:
‘that GBR and POL team raced to prevent FRA from winning the silver medal by GBR deliberatedly sailing slowly to permit POL to finish ahead.’
After viewing video and tracking evidence the Jury found that:
1. GBR overlapped outside at the zone gave ISR and POL mark-room as required by RRS 18.2(b).
2. GBR slowed the boat only to comply with the rules as required by RRS 2.
Jury Decision: Protest dismissed.
With the protest dealt with, the Medal race result was confirmed with Gold to Mills and McIntyre, Silver to Agnieszka Skrzypulec and Jolanta Ogar (POL) and Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz (FRA) the Bronze.
This gold, together with silver from London 2012 and gold from Rio 2016, makes Mills the most successful ever female Olympic sailor.
While Eilidh McIntyre’s gold matches the achievement of her father Mike McIntyre who won Star keelboat gold for Great Britain at the Seoul 1988 Olympics.
470 Women – Final after 10 races + Medal race (21 entries)
Gold GBR Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre – – 10 – – 38 pts
Silver POL Agnieszka Skrzypulec and Jolanta Ogar – – 8 – – 54 pts
Bronze FRA Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz – – 12 – – 54 pts
4th SUI Linda Fahrni and Maja Siegenthaler – – 2 – – 64 pts
5th SLO Tina Mrak and Veronika Macarol – – 14 – – 69 pts
6th GER Luise Wanser and Anastasiya Winkel – – 4 – – 77 pts
7th JPN Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka – – 16 – – 79 pts
8th ISR Noya Bar and Am Shahar Tibi – – 6 – – 80 pts
9th BRA Fernanda Oliveira and Ana Barbachan – – 20 – – 82 pts
10th NED Afrodite Zegers and Lobke Berkhout – – 18 – – 91 pts
Full results available here . . .
Related post:
Tokyo 2020 Games – Olympic Sailing Day 11 – Gold for GBR and AUS
