Athens 2004 - Day 15
by Sacha Oswald, RYA 28 Aug 2004 19:51 BST
Great Britain sails to the top of the medal table as the 2004 Olympic Games draw to a close
The 2004 Athens Olympic Games drew to a close today for the sailors at the Agios Kosmas Sailing Centre and once again Great Britain left its mark on the sport after being crowned as the most successful sailing nation for the second Games running.
To add to this accolade, Great Britain has also made history as the most successful sailing nation, adding two gold’s to the medal tally here in Athens, a total of nineteen gold medals have been won since the 1900 Olympic Games, which puts them just in front of the USA who have won eighteen gold medals in the same period.
Over the last two weeks, eleven different disciplines have competed and Great Britain has medalled in five. The first gold medal for Great Britain was won in the Yngling class over a week ago by Shirley Robertson, Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb. A few days later, Ben Ainslie hit the headlines, when he won his second Olympic gold medal, this time in the Finn, and on the same day Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield won silver in the 470 men’s class which was deeply satisfying for this duo after bitter disappointment in Sydney when they finished fourth.
Four days later Nick Dempsey had the world on edge when he sailed the race of his life to bag a bronze medal in the Mistral windsurfing discipline, the first ever windsurfing medal for Great Britain, and the following day Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks sailed into bronze medal position in the 49er class.
Finishing their regatta today was Sydney gold medallist Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell in the Star class and Leigh McMillan and Mark Bulkeley in the Tornado. The British Star team finished the regatta on a high note, a fourth place on the final day moved them up to sixth place overall.
Mitchell said, “There are a lot of good people out there and you can make all the excuses you want but at the end of the day, everyone’s got the same conditions and there are seventeen good teams competing. There are only three medals awarded so there are going to be fourteen disappointed sailors walking away and unfortunately we are one of them, but all credit to the guys that have got the medals.”
For the young Tornado pairing, a fifteenth place on the final day leaves them in thirteenth place overall, throughout the week they have shown plenty of promise and will definitely be ones to watch in the future.
McMillan commented on their performance in Athens and the future, “We put high expectations on ourselves and have worked really hard to get it right but we struggled in the conditions here. We will now go home, have a break and figure out what it was we struggled with. We still have a lot to learn and we certainly are not going to quit now.”
For the second Olympics in a row, Great Britain will be flying home as the top sailing nation with five medals, in front of Spain, and at present as the top Olympic sport for Great Britain.
RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park summed up his thoughts on the team’s performance “We think our target of three medals was realistic and we didn’t just say three as it was an easy number. We finished Sydney with five medals and we knew that performance was exceptional and people realised that it was unlikely to be repeated, but we have repeated it here in Athens so I am extremely happy about that.”
Overall Results:
Star
1, Torben Grael/Marcelo Ferreira, BRA (5,4,1,1,2,5,2,7,11,4,(DNC)) 42 pts GOLD
2, Ross MacDonald/Mike Wolfs CAN (7,11,4,3,1,5.2/RDG,8,(14),8,2,2) 51.2 pts SILVER
3, Xavier Rohart/Pascal Rambeau, FRA (3,9,6,(15),7,2,4,12,3,1,7) 54 pts BRONZE
GBR
6, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell (8,3,12,9,6,3,16,5,7,(17),4) 73 pts
Tornado
1, Roman Hagara/Hans Peter Steinacher, AUT (1,3,8,1,(14),8,4,1,2,5,1) 34 pts GOLD
2, Charlie Ogletree/John Lovell, USA (2,2,1,6,9,9,6,7,1,2,(10)) 45 pts SILVER
3, Santiago Lange/Carlos Espinola ARG (7,1,6,5,6,(11),5,8,4,3,9) 54 pts BRONZE
GBR
13, Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley (8,14,(17),12,7,14,8,3,16,15,15) 112 pts
49er
1, Iker Martinez/Xavier Fernandez, ESP (3,11,7,5,1,(12),2,6,(12),1,8,2,8,2,4,7) 67 pts GOLD
2, Rodion Luka/George Leonchuck, UKR (4,(15),3,7,2,(10),7,5,9,5,3,10,6,5,3,3) 72 pts SILVER
3, Chris Draper/Simon Hiscocks, GBR (8,5,6,3,10,8,1,(13),(11),8,2,4,1,9,6,6) 77 pts BRONZE
Mistral Women
1, Faustine Merret FRA (2,(13),1,4,2,4,4,5,4,3,2) 31 pts GOLD
2, Yin Jian, CHN ((11),6,2,6,4,1,1,1,2,9,1) 33 pts SILVER
3 , Alessandra Sensini, ITA ((7),1,6,3,1,2,3,6,3,2,7) 34 pts BRONZE
GBR
9, Natasha Sturges ((16),10,3,9,9,15,12,11,15,11,9) 103 pts
Mistral Men
1, Gal Fridman, ISR ((8),3,5,5,1,7,5,1,8,5,2) 42 pts GOLD
2, Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, GRE (1,4,4,(14),6,13,2,3,5,4,10) 52 pts SILVER
3, Nick Dempsey, GBR (2,11,(15),10,2,9,1,10,1,6,1) 53 pts BRONZE
Laser
1, Robert Scheidt, BRA (3,8,1,3,8,4,(19),12,7,3,6) 55 pts GOLD
2, Andreas Geritzer, AUT (4,1,(34),7,1,2,12,15,12,4,10) 68 pts SILVER
3, Vasilij Zbogar, SLO ((21),13,3,8,4,1,14,1,14,5,13) 76 pts BRONZE
GBR
4, Paul Goodison (13,3,(28),5,11,7,1,9,8,7,17) 81 pts
Europe
1, Siren Sundby, NOR (1,3,(DSQ),1,19,4,4,1,1,1, 12) 47 pts GOLD
2, Lenka Smidova, CZE (10,13,1,13,1,(26),1,6,3,7,10) 65 pts SILVER
3, Signe Livbjerg, DEN (4,6,7,15,8,6,10,3,11,4,(25)) 74 pts BRONZE
GBR
22, Laura Baldwin (21,14,9,23,20,22,(25),22,23,21,4) 178 pts
Yngling
1, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Ayton/Sarah Webb, GBR (5,4,1,1,4,3,4,6,3,8,(DNC)) 39 pts GOLD
2, Ruslana Taran/Ganna Kalinina/Svitlana Matevusheva, UKR (10,3,9,3,7,2,2,9,1,(16),5) 50 pts SILVER
3, Dorte O. Jensen/Helle Jespersen/Christina Otzen, DEN (1,14,5,5,5,6,3,4,6,5,(OCS)) 54 pts BRONZE
Finn
1, Ben Ainslie, GBR (9,(DSQ),1,1,4,1,2,3,2,1,14) 38 pts GOLD
2, Rafael Trujillo, ESP (8,3,3,6,2,3,(OCS),4,5,2,13) 51 pts SILVER
3, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, POL (3,1,6,4,11,(OCS),17,1,7,4,1) 53 pts BRONZE
470 Men
1, Paul Foerster/Kevin Burnham, USA (1,8,2,15,9,4,3,7,18,4,(22)) 71 pts GOLD
2, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield, GBR (2,3,9,4,18,5,2,3,10,19,(23)) 74 pts SILVER
3, Kazuto Seki/Kenjiro Todoroki, JPN (3,7,(21),18,7,12,1,9,2,3,11) 90 pts BRONZE
470 Women
1, Sofia Bekatorou/Aimilia Tsoulfa, GRE (1,2,2,13,1,1,14,1,1,2,(21)) 38 pts GOLD
2, Natalia Via-Dufresne/Sandra Azon ESP (2,4,9,15,(19),5,8,3,5,6,5) 62 pts SILVER
3, Therese Torgersson/Vendela Zachrisson SWE (9,10,7,2,3,(14),9,6,7,7,3) 63 pts BRONZE
GBR
7, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson (5,14,15,4,5,6,17,(21),2,16,7) 91 pts
You can follow the racing online at www.gbrsailing.org.uk where you will get live updates from the dinghy park and the results as they come in, as well as all the gossip from the Team GB camp. You can also leave messages of support for the team and your comments on the racing.