British sailing star Ben Ainslie was assured his fourth Olympic medal yesterday when he stretched his overall Finn class lead over Zach Railey of the US going into today’s medal race. Even if he were disqualified in the final race, his point total would assure him at least a silver medal.
“I dearly hope to hold on to that gold medal position,” said Ainslie, the defending Finn gold medalist from 2004, who also has a gold from 2000 and a silver from 1996 in the Laser class. “I hope it will be sweet and easy, but knowing the Olympics it won’t.”
In the Yngling class, the Dutch team of Mandy Mulder, Annemieke Bes and Merel Witteveen lead all the way in yesterday’s race, scoring a win that brings them within a point of the leaders, British trio Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson. That means today’s final will be a British-Dutch match race for gold, with the remaining boats in a scramble for bronze.
PHOTO: EPA
The British were fifth in yesterday’s race, behind France, Greece and China.
The fickle winds at Qingdao, some 500km south of Beijing, disrupted racing for the third straight day, with delays of up to four hours. Organizers had hoped to hold 27 races during the day, including races dropped on Wednesday and Thursday because of the lack of wind. By the end of the day, 11 races had been held in 10 classes.
There was also racing for the men’s and women’s RS:X windsurfers, the 470s for men and women, the Lasers and the Laser Radials.
In the 26-boat Finn class, Ainslie expanded his lead over Olympic first-timer Railey to 12 points heading into the final medal race, which counts double, while Spain’s Rafa Trujillo Villar scored his first win of the eight-race series, to secure the last spot among the 10 boats advancing to the medal race. Christopher Cook of Canada was third.
Railey got his worst finish of the series, with 19th place, which will not count toward his total since sailors are each allowed to drop one result. He said the placing was a tactical decision, to improve his chances of winning a medal by increasing his lead on his France’s Guillaume Florent.
“With the position I was in, I had to make a decision,” Railey said.
He said when he realized he was not going to get a top placing, he used his “drop race” to block the Frenchman and force him to get a bad score. The boats with the lowest total score get the highest ranking.
“I started match racing with the French boat when I saw I would not make the top five,” Railey said.
Railey’s worst previous finish was an eighth place, while Florent already had a 20th place going into yesterday’s race. So by forcing Florent to finish 21st, Railey increased his lead on the French boat to 17 points from six going into the race.
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