Men’s Windsurfer – RS:X Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED) has won the gold medal in the Men’s Windsurfer and Nick Dempsey (GBR) has won the silver, both without having to contest the Medal Race on Sunday. It’s a carbon copy repeat of London 2012 when the Dutchman took gold ahead of the Briton four years ago. The result is subject to protest, and both sailors will still have to sail the Medal Race, but van Rijsselberghe and Dempsey were already congratulating each other after crossing the finish line of the 12th race of their series. These two athletes have dominated the Olympic competition, with van Rijsselberghe winning seven of the 12 races and Dempsey winning three. Sunday’s battle for bronze will still be close fought between current World Champion Piotr Myszka (POL), Pierre Le Coq (FRA) and Byron Kokkalanis (GRE).

Looking back to the start of the RS:X competition, van Rijsselberghe commented, “I was very fortunate that Nick went off like a cannon in the first couple of races because it really showed me like, ‘okay, it’s not going to be easy.’ We never thought it was going to be easy but he really showed me that if I wanted this, I had to work for it. I tried, worked for it and I got it. It’s great when you’re sailing against guys that are really pushing you and challenging you. If you don’t have that, it would be very boring.”

Even though the Dutchman dominated four years ago to win his first Olympic title, he was still taken aback at his performance this time. “It’s unreal. I did it in London and I never expected it to happen again. Now that it’s happened again, it’s unreal. It’s never easy, if it was easy everybody would be doing it. It was an amazing week and having the guys push me really helped a lot. Coming out with a score like this is pretty special.”

Van Rijsselberghe paid tribute to the people that helped him to his second Olympic title saying, “The majority of it will be from Aaron, my coach. He keeps pushing me and of course my training partner Kiran Badloe and the others that have helped me bust my balls and blaze along.” He also thanked his wife for allowing him to shave his head specially for the Games, just as he had done when he won four years ago in London.

Dempsey almost had a tear in his eye as he sealed his third Olympic windsurfing medal, the first sailor ever to have done so. “I was consistent but not quite consistently good enough today. I just had to really try and stay in touch with Dorian and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had an eye on the two people behind me. Dorian was too good today. He won it today rather than me losing it and I feel very happy to have won a silver medal.”

The Briton has won three medals from five Games, so he knows what it’s like to miss out and he wasn’t taking his silver for granted. It has been a life of sacrifice dating back to his first Games in Sydney 2000. This evening he was enjoying his first beer in five months. “A year ago, I didn’t know where I’d finish. At the Olympic Test event last year I wasn’t anywhere near the podium so I had a lot of work to do. The last 12 months have gone really well and I’ve worked bloody hard, so it’s nice to come here and have a chance of winning. To have the silver medal is pretty awesome.”

On his strategy, Dempsey was happy to have taken a conservative approach. “I didn’t want to be too aggressive. I wanted to stay pretty safe as it was pretty unstable out there. The last thing I wanted to do was have a day like the Polish guy. He had some horrendous scores, and then all of a sudden you’re out of the medals and fighting to get back. I had to be quite careful. I was pretty close to Dorian but he was slightly ahead of me. Unfortunately, he was ahead all of the time but when somebody is out winning there is not a lot you can do apart from limit the damage. He was too good today. It’s been an amazing week with great racing.”

Dempsey will celebrate his 36th birthday tomorrow with a rest day before Sunday’s Medal Race, and he wants to go out on a high. “Sunday is my last race ever so I want to do well and win.”

Women’s Windsurfer – RS:X

Star performer of the day was Peina Chen (CHN) who won the last three races of the qualifying series. Just five points separate the top six sailors going into Sunday’s Women’s Windsurfer Medal Race this Sunday. Bearing in mind the final race is worth double points, Stefania Elfutina’s (RUS) one-point lead over Flavia Tartaglini (ITA) effectively puts them tied for first. Breathing down their necks are reigning Olympic Champion Marina Alabau (ESP), Peina Chen (CHN), Charline Picon (FRA) and Maayan Davidovich (ISR). A few points further back but still with an outside shot at the podium is Lillian de Geus (NED).

Alabau is going to have fight hard to keep her Olympic title, but she’s relishing the challenge. “It hasn’t been a bad day for me but I really think that I could have done it a bit better. It has been a difficult day, with difficult conditions, very changing winds in direction and intensity. Some girls have done it quite bad, not me, but I haven’t shone either. Now I have a protest with the Israeli and let’s see how it finishes.” As to the grand finale on Sunday, “It’s going to be the most interesting Medal Race in history. We are seven women to win three medals. Crazy.”

Tartaglini led earlier in the week and was a little envious at the ease with which the gold and silver medals have been won in the Men’s Windsurfer. “I would have liked to do it as Dorian or Nick, but we are going to keep the suspense until the end. Women are so pig-headed, so we have to suffer till the end. It’s a nonsense to work out the points. I have to do my own race, and I hope to win a medal.”
RYA REPORT

“Windsurfer Nick Dempsey has guaranteed he will claim his second successive Olympic silver medal (provisional result) after his performance in Rio today (Friday 12 August).

Scores of fifth, seventh and eighth from the RS:X Men’s three races on Guanabara Bay this evening mean Dempsey, who turns 36 tomorrow (Saturday), cannot lose the silver in Sunday’s Medal Race. But gold is out of his reach with Dorian Van Rijsselberge (NED) doing enough to claim overall victory.

With Sunday’s Medal Race worth double points, Dempsey, who is now set to retire from the sport with three Olympic medals – silvers at Rio and London 2012 and bronze from Athens 2004 – cannot be caught by Piotr Myszka (POL), who currently sits third overall.

But even he if was to win Sunday’s medal race – claiming two points – and Van Rijsselberge was to be disqualified and score the worst possible result of 22 points, the Dutchman would still finish the event one with a point advantage over the Brit.

Dempsey said: “I feel very happy to have won a silver medal. It’s cool, it’s amazing. It’s nice to have had a good spell at the top and be competitive over five Olympic Games. I’m pretty proud of that.

“A year ago I finished nowhere near the podium and I knew I had a lot of work to do. The last 12 months have gone really well and I’ve worked really hard. It was nice to come here with a chance of a medal and silver is awesome. I can do what I want in the medal race! It’s a little parade and it will be the last race of my career.

“Today it was a case of trying to keep in touch. Dorian came straight out and won the first and second race, he’s rocking in those conditions. He won it today rather than me losing it. He should be very happy. It’s been an amazing week.”

The Peterborough-raised star, competing at his fifth Olympics after making his debut at Sydney 2000, started the day with gold still in his sights. But as London 2012 champion Van Rijsselberge won the first two races of the day all eyes turned to the various medal permutations that could arise from the third and final race of the day.

The Dutchman rounded the first mark in fifth ahead of Dempsey in eighth, but most importantly for the Brit’s silver chances, with the Pole lagging in 18th.

As the race unfolded Myszka failed to make a big dent in the distance between himself and Dempsey and when Van Rijsselberge crossed the line in sixth, Dempsey in eighth and Myszka in 16th the top two medal places were sealed.

Dempsey added: “I’m unemployed as of next week, I’ll have to get a job! I’d like to do photography if I can make it work and a bit of coaching. I’d like some new challenges and new goals and I want to keep being driven in life and achieve something else.

“Tomorrow is a day off and it’s my birthday, and Sunday is my last race ever so I’m going to want to win. I’ll mostly hold off celebrating until after racing. I want to be the best teammate I can be to rest of team.”

The RS:X Men’s Medal Race is scheduled to take place at 5pm (BST) on Sunday on the Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf) course.

To follow Dempsey’s fortunes at Rio 2016 visit www.rya.org.uk/Rio2016, follow @BritishSailing on Twitter and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/britishsailingteam

Shaw wants to end on Rio high

Bryony Shaw will bid to end her Rio campaign on a high after securing her place in Sunday’s RS:X Women’s Medal Race.

Shaw picked up fourth places in each of her three races today (Friday 12 August) to move to an event high of eighth overall.

The Beijing 2008 bronze medallist has dug in and produced an impressive comeback in the second half of her regatta – scoring all six finishes inside the top five – after initially struggling to find her form on Guanabara Bay.

But after conceding she now only has an “outside chance of a medal” in Sunday’s double-points medal showdown, she is not about to stop fighting.

She said: “The points are close so the aim is to go out and smash that Medal Race and jump up the standings as much as possible.

“I had a tough two days at the start of the week where I underperformed, didn’t get off start lines well and a few unfortunate things that happened that I tried not to dwell on too much and get my head back in the game.

“The last two days have been much more what Bryony Shaw is capable of. It is a missed opportunity for me to medal here. The last few years I’ve been a top performer, so I certainly had higher expectations of myself at this regatta.

“I think I was absolutely capable of medalling and being in the mix. It would have been great to be much more of a player going in to the final. As it is, it is an outside chance.”

The RS:X Women’s Medal Race is scheduled to take place at 6pm (BST) on Sunday on the Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf) course.

Anyone around Weymouth and Portland can have a go at sailing and windsurfing for free and watch Nick Dempsey claim his silver medal at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy as part of the RYA Sail for Gold Roadshow on Sunday (14 August). The taster sessions starts at 9.30am and you can meet some of the British Sailing Team and watch the Olympic sailing medal races, also featuring Bryony Shaw, live from 5pm.

To follow the Shaw’s fortunes at Rio 2016 visit www.rya.org.uk/Rio2016, follow @BritishSailing on Twitter and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/britishsailingteam”