The battle for the Women’s medals the closest in years but ends with a French victory and gold for Charline Picon, Peina Chen (CHN) silver and Stefaniya Elfutina (RUS) bronze .While in the fight for the Men’s bronze it was Pierre Le Coq of France who made his final race count as Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED) wins gold and Nick Dempsey (GBR) took silver.
RS:X Men – Pierre Le Coq (FRA) has won the bronze medal for France after a fierce battle in the Medal Race for the Men’s Windsurfer (RS:X).
Racing in 10-knot winds, the fleet of 10 windsurfers blasted up the race track in front of a crowd of spectators on Flamengo Beach, with the top of the course set in the shadow of Sugarloaf Mountain.
Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED) took the lead on the last lap and won the race easily, the Dutchman cementing his status as the 2016 Olympic Champion. Nick Dempsey (GBR) crossed the line in fourth place, his silver already secure. But the battle for third was raging at the back of the fleet and Le Coq did enough to overtake the reigning World Champion Piotr Myszka (POL) in the second half of the race, to win the bronze medal.
RS:X Women
Charline Picon (FRA) has won gold in the Women’s Windsurfer (RS:X) after the most tense and exciting Medal Race ever seen in Olympic sailing.
Of the ten competitors in the double-points final, seven had a shot at gold. Picon started badly but moved through to second by the first mark. Meanwhile Peina Chen (CHN) had another gear downwind and shot up from sixth to second by the bottom of the first lap.
China looked set to take the gold from France, but Picon held on in the light winds to the finish to secure the Olympic title, with Chen settling for silver. Lillian de Geus (NED) sailed an excellent Medal Race to cross the line in first place just in front of Picon, and had an anxious wait to see if she had done enough for bronze.
Stefaniya Elfutina (RUS) had a shocking start, being given a double penalty turn for infringing Bryony Shaw (GBR) at the start line. But the 19-year-old Russian rallied to seventh place and just edged out Lillian de Geus (NED) for the bronze.
The RYA report –
“Dempsey’s pride at history making silver
Nick Dempsey admitted his pride after becoming the most decorated Olympic male windsurfer of all time by winning Rio 2016 silver today (Sunday 14 August).
The medal is five-time Olympian Dempsey’s second consecutive Olympic silver, having also finished second at London 2012, and his third Games medal in total having first been on the podium at Athens 2004.
Dempsey went into today’s double points Medal Race knowing that, providing he successfully competed in the race, he couldn’t be knocked off the second podium post, but was unable to overtake Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED) for gold.
And a fourth in the race, which was won by van Rijsselberghe, confirmed Dempsey’s silver medal and status as the most decorated Olympic male windsurfer ever.
As he crossed the line a puff of the cheeks, a smile from ear to ear and an elevated clench of the fist said it all, and straight after the race Dempsey’s coach, Dom Tidey, said even though his charge had had a couple of days to think about what he had achieved it hadn’t sunk in and suggested he would try to convince him to go again.
The 36-year-old Dempsey, who made his Olympic debut at Sydney 2000, revealed he won’t yet rule out a sixth Games bid but admits it is unlikely.
Dempsey said: “Being the most decorated male Olympic windsurfer is awesome, something I’m incredibly proud of. I have been working for a long time, and it’s very hard to say at the top for that long. I’m not sure I can do it again. I would love to if I could. It will be emotional as soon as I sit down in a quiet space on my own.
“I love windsurfing, I love racing, I think I am occasionally a bit competitive and I just don’t like losing. If you’re going to carry on doing it, you have to be winning or at least in contention. I love the Olympics, I think it is the best thing in the world everything that it stands for, I think, is pretty special.
“When I spoke to my boys, they already knew. Oscar wasn’t fussed and Thomas said ‘it’s okay daddy, you have two silvers now, which is the same as one gold’. In his eyes, it’s okay which is cool. They’re both windsurfing. They just love the water.”
Following an hour and a half postponement waiting for the wind to swing round and fill in, the Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf) delivered arguably the most perfect conditions experienced on that course all week.
After coming off the start line hardest to the pin end Dempsey and van Rijsselberghe, flew out far to the left hand side of the course with the Dutchman rounding the first mark in second and the Brit in fourth.
With the battle for the bronze medal unfolding behind them, van Rijsselberghe started to turn on jet burners that had already seen him win seven opening series races and he powered to the front midway through, before, with the breeze dying, crossing the line to clinch his eighth race win out of 13 with Dempsey in fourth.
Dempsey added: “I set out trying really hard to win the race and I had a lovely start but I made one little error and it became a bit of a procession and a cruise around. I enjoyed it, it was fantastic racing out there, it was good conditions and hopefully made the sport look good on TV.
“I couldn’t do a victory lap, I was sailing downwind and there was quite a big gap and the wind was starting to drop out and I could see them catching me up behind and I just couldn’t cruise. I was a little bit frustrated I didn’t win.
“The team is still racing so I am in support mode now. We’re a team, people are still working hard and it’s an important phase at the moment for our team as people are trying to win medals. It’s important that we stick together.”
“Shaw’s disappointment at Rio “unfulfillment”
Bryony Shaw admitted she felt “unfulfilled” after finishing her Rio 2016 in ninth overall today (Sunday 14 August).
Shaw, who went into the final double points Medal Race, with the faintest of medal hopes finished the race in sixth overall as France’s Charline Picon took gold.
The Beijing 2008 bronze medallist sailed a brilliantly consistent second half of the regatta with scores all inside the top five to claw her way back into Medal Race contention, after the opening six races had put her firmly on the back foot.
But it wasn’t quite enough, and having wanted to end on the high of a good Medal Race performance, Shaw was left reflecting on what might have been in Rio.
She said: “I felt unfulfilled after London and I feel unfulfilled here. Any time you don’t medal or you feel underperformed to your ability it’s tough to take.
“I had a good cycle in the build up to 2012 and didn’t have a great Games and the same has happened here. It’s potentially a worse scenario here as I was in good health and good form, so this time it’s come down more to mistakes and misfortune.
“There was kind of disbelief after day one, and I’ve ground my way back from a tough mental place. I feel amazement actually that I haven’t really performed to my best this week. But it’s all in hindsight and you learn from it. Hopefully I’ll come back stronger for the next one. All of these things will be learners for the next cycle
“It’s tough as the Olympics is what we all aim for. The fact is this has not been my week, I’ve still had some amazing comments from the other commentators and coaches. I feel like I’ve had bad fortune, but it’s been a great four years.”
Shaw was in the spotlight before the starting horn even sounded for today’s race as she was involved in a start line tussle that resulted in eventual bronze medallist, Stefaniya Elfutina, completing two sets of penalty turns either side of the start.
With the wind dropping to as little as four knots, opportunities to make up places around the racecourse got fewer and fewer as the sailors had to use all their strength and guile to pump their boards into even just moving forwards.
Shaw added: “I had a couple of incidents on the start line. The Russian girl was trying to find a gap where there was no gap on the start line and that all set me back in the pack. I knew I wanted to be going left, but I wanted to be going left having had a good start and good positioning above that group. The girls went over to the left side with more pressure and the tide helped as well. So it was quite hampering.”
The silver medal went to China’s Peina Chen who finished the medal race in third.
For live as they happen updates off the water follow @BritishSailing on Twitter with more news at Rio 2016 visit www.rya.org.uk/Rio2016 and Facebook at www.facebook.com/britishsailingteam
Find information below on how to follow the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition.
RESULTS / ENTRIES
A full list of sailors racing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is available to view here –http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/qualification/sailors.php#.V6ZHvo6BLqM. Results are available here –https://www.rio2016.com/en/sailing-schedule-and-results
LIVE TRACKING
The racing will be available to watch in 2D and 3D via the live tracking. Live tracking will be available when racing commences via – http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/multimedia/live_tracking.php
Live Tracking via the Sailviewer-3D Tablet App will be available for devices with 7″ or greater screens.
Click here to download the iOS Application – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sailviewer-3d/id912801278
Click here to download the Android Application – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stsportservice.sailviewer
COMPETITION STATUS
The Competition Status Screen feeds in straight from the Race Committee boats with the teams inputting data such as race times, course type, the status of each race and the plan moving forward. The competition status screen will be available when racing commences via –http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/multimedia/live_tracking.php
LIVE BLOGGING
Sailing journalist Craig Leweck will be following the racing LIVE on World Sailing’s Olympic Blog throughout Rio 2016. Follow LIVE here – http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/multimedia/live_blog.php#.V6dUbY6BLqM
PRESS RELEASES
World Sailing will be releasing international press releases after racing throughout the duration of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. All the latest news and reports will be available to read here –http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/news/index.php
TELEVISION
To find out who your Olympic broadcaster is, click here – https://www.olympic.org/rio-2016/broadcasters. The following link – http://go.olympic.org/WS – will redirect you to the Rights Holding Broadcaster in your country.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow the event on World Sailing’s social networks:
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Twitter – @worldsailing
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USEFUL LINKS
World Sailing Olympic Website – http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/home.php
Competition Schedule – http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/about/schedule.php
Latest Olympic Sailing news – http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/news/index.php
Online Notice Board – http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/results/notices/notices.php
Social Wall – http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/multimedia/social_wall.php#.V6ZteY6BLqM