Olympic sailing was a heated competition in Beijing this summer. Great Britain dominated the medal count with 4 golds, a silver and a bronze for a total of 6 medals. Australia was next with 2 golds and a silver, with the USA and Spain tied for 3rd with a gold and silver each. See full medal results here.
Being a fan of the US of A I want to send a shout out to our medal winners. Anna Tunnicliffe who won gold in the Laser Radial Class, (women's single-handed dinghy), without a single first place finish in 9 races. Her record speaks to all the lessons I was taught and tried to teach, constancy is king. Gintarė_Volungevičiūtė
of Lithuania put up a hell of a fight, but 2 bad races and only one throw out put her behind by 5 points.
In the Finn class Ben Ainslie dominated with a 22 point lead. But American Zach_Railey is making fantastic strides after graduating from U of Miami in 2006. This is certainly one sailor to keep an eye on.
Jonas Warrer and Martin Kirketerp Ibsen won my favorite class for the Danes, well thanks to a strange twist, read on. 49er skiffs were certainly the most competitive class this year. I have to give it to the Americans Tim Wadlow and Chris Rast who refused to give up by winning 3 races and scoring over only 18 points in the last half of the regatta. Way to go guys! These races were by far the most entertaining as everyone was fighting for their position nearly every race. The point spread of the top five places was only 12 points! Here comes the real kicker is that in the double points medal round the Danes broke their mast and FINISHED the race with a different boat, salvaging their gold medal! I have no idea how this can be legal in the official rules, a protest was filed by the Race Committee and has lead to many jury hearings. I'll keep watching the news to see how this turns out.
Congrats to all for the great competition.
