The Rice Report: Kontides' conundrum

Pavlos Kontides (CYP) - ILCA 7 - Day 8 - Marseille - Paris2024 Olympic Regatta - August 4, 2024 © World Sailing / Sander van der Borch

Top international yachting correspondent Andy Rice reports from the Paris2024 - Day 9 - looking today at Pavlos Kontides' conundrum in the Mens Dinghy (ILCA 7).

Pavlos Kontides (CYP) is very aware of the strange situation that he finds himself in. Such is Australian Matt Wearn’s lead, the defending Olympic Champion is already certain of a silver medal in the Men’s Dinghy.

“I’m in a bit of a tricky spot because Matt Wearn can only lose to me and so I will expect a match race from him,” said the London 2012 Olympic silver medallist from Cyprus. A match is a boat-on-boat duel, which we’ve seen before to resolve Olympic medals in the Olympic dinghy. “If Matt manages to drag us both of us back [down the fleet], this opens the opportunity for Peru and GBR to attack. And even though I have a nice buffer of points it’s a tricky situation to be in. So my job is to try and escape from the match race and sail against the others and finish as far forward as possible.”

At his first Olympic Regatta all the way back in Beijing 2008, Kontides missed the 10-boat Medal Race because he was a young and inexperienced teenager and finished 13th. But he was there in Qingdao to witness the Medal Race as British sailor Paul Goodison set about match racing Sweden’s Rasmus Myrgren all the way down the fleet.

This was because Myrgren was the only sailor remaining who had a mathematical chance of taking gold away from the Briton. Even though Myrgren would have to win the Medal Race and Goodison finish last, the British sailor was not prepared to leave anything to chance. Goodison executed his plan from before the start and did such a good job of holding the Swede back that he knocked Myrgren out of the medals altogether.

Currently sitting in silver medal position and sitting 10 points ahead of Peru’s Stefano Peschiera, Kontides is philosophical about being at such a disadvantage. He does, after all, still have a theoretical shot at the gold medal. “It’s sailing so you never know what could happen,” he concluded with a wry smile.

Wearn, who has had little to say this week, when asked whether or not he’d be going for the match race, said: “Haven’t made my mind up yet.”

[Andy Rice, in conjunction with top coach Olympic and America's Cup coach Hamish Willcox, run the outstanding Road to Gold series where top sailors and coaches share their experiences]