British Olympic Champions nominated for World Sailor of the Year Awards
by Imogen Stanley 3 Oct 2016 16:39 BST
3 October 2016
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark with their Rio 2016 gold medals © Richard Langdon / British Sailing Team
British Sailing Team Olympic Champions Giles Scott, Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark have been nominated as finalists for the prestigious Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards following their achievements at Rio 2016 this summer.
The Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards is the highest form of recognition within sailing, awarded annually to one female and one male nominee since 1994. The winners will be announced on Tuesday 8 November in Barcelona, Spain. Past British winners include, Ben Ainslie, Shirley Robertson, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and 2015 World Sailor Sarah Ayton.
Olympic Champion and four-time World Champion, Giles Scott had an almost flawless four year quadrennial in the build-up to Rio, winning gold at all but two of the events he competed in, and winning silver at the others, to confirm his nomination in the male category.
World Championship wins in 2014, 2015 and 2016 solidified his position as the favourite in Rio as well as in the history books as the second-most successful sailor in the Finn Gold Cup's 60-year history.
After a shaky opening race at his first Olympic Games, Scott climbed his way back up the leader board to the top spot on day three, where he stayed for the remainder of the week winning gold ahead of the final Medal Race.
This is the fifth consecutive gold for a British sailor in the Finn class at the Olympic Games, with Scott continuing on the legacy started by Iain Percy at Sydney 2000 and continued by Ainslie at the three Games since.
Alongside Finn campaigning, Scott has also continued to lend his expertise to Ainslie's British America's Cup effort throughout the nomination period, with the team currently leading the America's Cup World Series.
Scott will face tough competition from three other Olympic Champions including Kiwi 49er duo Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, 470 Champions Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO). Nacra 17 sailor Santiago Lange (ARG) and Paralympic Champion Damien Seguin (FRA).
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark just had to finish the Medal Race to upgrade their London 2012 silver to gold at Rio 2016.
A consistent opening series with scores all inside the top eight put them 20 points ahead of the London 2012 New Zealand champions. The golden pair raced a pressure free Medal Race before sailing to Flamengo Beach for an emotional embrace with family and friends, a fairy-tale ending to their five year partnership.
Over the past four years, the pair have been serial medal contenders, winning back to back 2016 Sailing World Cups in Hyeres and Weymouth & Portland. A silver medal at the 2015 World Championships is Haifa, Israel, and silvers at both the 2014 and 2015 Olympic test events in Rio.
Clark said: "It's awesome for us, I always think of the World Sailor Awards as the sailing Oscars so to be nominated for the first time is really exciting and we are looking forward to heading to Barcelona, it will be another chance to celebrate with lots of our friends.
"The standard of women's sailing is high and everyone within our category won gold in Rio so it will be really tough, if do win it would be an amazing finish to our partnership."
Nominated alongside Mills and Clark is Laser Radial Olympic Champion Marit Bouwmeester (NED), French gold medal-winning windsurfer Charline Picon. Cecilia Carranza Saroli, one half of the Nacra 17 Argentinian golden crew and Brazilian 49erFX Olympic Champions Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze.
Voting will be open to the public for the first time with more details to follow on how to vote.
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