Mistral class at Athens 2004 Overall
by Andi Robertson 25 Aug 2004 19:40 BST
Nick Dempsey beat the odds which looked to be stacked against him today to win Britain's fourth Olympic sailing medal.
By winning the final race of the Mistral men's windsurfer class, and having the Brazilian Ricardo Santos finish back in 17th place, Dempsey added a bronze medal to the British haul of two golds and one silver to date. For the duration of his final race only he was allowed possession of the
lucky horseshoe which had done the trick for fiancee Sarah Ayton and while Demspey pumped his heart out to win after a canny first beat, some external factor worked in his favour.
He did the best he could and went out and won the final race, leading from start gun to finish gun, but his medal quest was helped when the challenge from Brazil's overnight leader Ricardo Santos collapsed on the first leg. "To be honest I feel relieved and delighted." Admitted Dempsey who shares a house back in Weymouth with Sarah. He admitted he did not even know he had won bronze until he was nearly entering the harbour after racing, and had sailed all the way back believing he had missed out.
"We thought that was it and it was time to get out of here, because the angle on the line we could not really see what had happened, but it was only when I was nearly back in that one of the support workers had done the sums and told us. it's just great."
"I have just worked so hard for the last four years. I think that is so hard, the most physically demanding of all the Olympic classes and I have trained so hard over the last three months. We did not go home and just stayed here working. I knew that I had to be in the best physical shape and
so now to come away with something is worth it."
Dempsey, who finished 16th in Sydney admitted that underperforming four years ago has been one of the keys to his success. "The thing is as well it is not just about winning a medal, it is about the
sense of achievement. I know I did everything I possibly could for the last four years, and knowing that makes me happy."
"I have lived here for the last three months and just trained constantly. Each day I have been putting in one and half hours of high intensity gym work each morning, then one or two sessions on the water each day, getting on the water between 12 and 1 each day. That has been important because it is based around the race schedule. I could not believe that some teams waited until the breeze got up in the afternoon to go sailing."