Australia and New Zealand confirmed gold and silver respectively in the men’s 49er class on Wednesday, while defending champions Denmark took bronze with 14 nations having shared 21 sailing medals in the regatta so far.
Australia and New Zealand had already secured their medals on points in earlier races and just needed to take part on Wednesday, but they competed as if the medal race still counted, finishing fourth and second respectively behind Austria.
“It felt like a tough race to be honest,” Australia skipper Nathan Outteridge said. “We were just watching the race for the bronze, which looked very stressful.”
Photo: EPA
“We just wanted to stay out of trouble ... [so] we were at the front,” Blair Tuke of New Zealand said.
Australia’s four-time world champions Outteridge and Iain Jensen showed their class throughout the event, leaving New Zealand trailing 24 points behind at the finish.
The Kiwis played second fiddle again having come second to Australia at the last two world championships.
“We’ve worked extremely hard over the last three years. They [Australia] sailed a little bit better than us,” Tuke said after thousands of people enjoyed the sunshine while watching the racing from the grassy hill of the shoreline Nothe course.
Denmark, who came third on Wednesday to finish 58 points behind the leaders, collected their second sailing medal in the 49er class after taking gold at the Beijing Olympic Games.
“But this feels like gold,” bronze-medal winner Allan Norregaard said. “Everything worked out really good for us there. We had to make a separation from the others ... [when] we went left on the final upwind leg to the top mark.”
“We tried to keep some tension going,” he added. “We’re very happy to come home with a medal.”
New Zealand’s women are hoping to go one better than their men’s pair as they chase gold after finishing joint first with Britain in the women’s 470 ahead of today’s medal race.
“It was one good race and one sort of shocker ... we always seem to have one terrible race,” New Zealand’s Jo Aleh said after Wednesday’s races.
Britain’s world champions Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, who only came together last year, have no intention of settling for the silver medal.
“We came here to win. We just need to finish off,” Clark said.
The Netherlands were chasing bronze in the women’s 470 with commercial 747 pilot Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout third overall just ahead of France and Brazil before the medal race.
“We’ve got to fight for the bronze. We have to make sure we stay in front of them,” Berkhout said.
Australia, clear favorites in the women’s Elliott 6m class, beat the Netherlands 3-1 in their best-of-five quarter-final on Wednesday on the second day of the knockout stage of racing.
Australia, who have lost only once in 15 races, next face Finland, who were surprise 3-1 winners of their match against the US.
A protest by Britain over an infringement in the fourth race of their 3-2 defeat by Russia was dismissed and the Russians face Spain in the semi-finals.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
‘REMARKABLE’: Gaelic football is a traditional Irish sport that blends the skills of soccer and rugby, and hurling is an ancient sport played with a wooden stick and ‘sliotar’ The Taiwan Celts Gaelic Football Club marked a milestone achievement at the Asian Gaelic Games in Bangkok on Nov. 23 and 24, with two sides advancing to the knockout stages and competing at hurling for the first time. The event brought together 68 teams from 16 clubs across Asia, with more than 800 players in men’s and women’s tournaments. Gaelic football is a traditional Irish team sport that blends the skills of soccer, rugby union and basketball. Hurling is an ancient Irish sport played with a wooden stick, called a hurley, and a small ball, or sliotar. The Taiwan Celts’ women’s team reached
LIVERPOOL WIN: The 50th Champions League goal by Mohamed Salah helped the leaders of the Premier League to keep their perfect record intact Real Madrid’s big stars on Tuesday turned on the style to revive the Spanish giant’s faltering UEFA Champions League title defense. Galacticos Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham all scored in a thrilling 3-2 win against Serie A leaders Atalanta BC. However, Madrid still had to ride their luck as Mateo Retegui fired over from in front of goal in stoppage-time when handed a golden chance to level the game. It was only Madrid’s third win in the competition’s revamped league phase and leaves the 15-time champions in the unseeded playoff positions in 18th place. “It’s a very important win. Not everyone wins
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
RSS