Counting up the metalware

The RYA's Sacha Oswald looks at the final medal placings for Team GBR

The 2004 Athens Olympic Games drew to a close on Saturday for the sailors at the Agios Kosmas Sailing Centre and once again Great Britain left it’s mark on the sport after being crowned as the most successful sailing nation for the second Games running.

To add to this accolade, Great Britain has also made history as the most successful sailing nation, adding two gold’s to the medal tally here in Athens, a total of nineteen gold medals have been won since the 1900 Olympic Games, which puts them just in front of the USA who have won eighteen gold medals in the same period.

Over the last two weeks, eleven different disciplines have competed and Great Britain has medalled in five. The first gold medal for Great Britain was won in the Yngling class over a week ago by Shirley Robertson, Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb. A few days later, Ben Ainslie hit the headlines, when he won his second Olympic gold medal, this time in the Finn, and on the same day Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield won silver in the 470 men’s class which was deeply satisfying for this duo after bitter disappointment in Sydney when they finished fourth.

Four days later Nick Dempsey had the world on edge when he sailed the race of his life to bag a bronze medal in the Mistral windsurfing discipline, the first ever windsurfing medal for Great Britain, and the following day Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks sailed into bronze medal position in the 49er class.

Finishing their regatta today was Sydney gold medallist Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell in the Star class and Leigh McMillan and Mark Bulkeley in the Tornado. The British Star team finished the regatta on a high note, a fourth place on the final day moved them up to sixth place overall.

Mitchell said, “There are a lot of good people out there and you can make all the excuses you want but at the end of the day, everyone’s got the same conditions and there are seventeen good teams competing. There are only three medals awarded so there are going to be fourteen disappointed sailors walking away and unfortunately we are one of them, but all credit to the guys that have got the medals.”

For the young Tornado pairing, a fifteenth place on the final day leaves them in thirteenth place overall, throughout the week they have shown plenty of promise and will definitely be ones to watch in the future.

McMillan commented on their performance in Athens and the future, “We put high expectations on ourselves and have worked really hard to get it right but we struggled in the conditions here. We will now go home, have a break and figure out what it was we struggled with. We still have a lot to learn and we certainly are not going to quit now.”

For the second Olympics in a row, Great Britain will be flying home as the top sailing nation with five medals, in front of Spain, and at present as the top Olympic sport for Great Britain.

RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park summed up his thoughts on the team’s performance “We think our target of three medals was realistic and we didn’t just say three as it was an easy number. We finished Sydney with five medals and we knew that performance was exceptional and people realised that it was unlikely to be repeated, but we have repeated it here in Athens so I am extremely happy about that.”

Final results, day 15

Medal standings:
1, GBR (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
2, ESP (1 gold, 2 silver)
=3, GRE (1 gold, 1 silver), UKR (2 silver), DEN (2 bronze)

Star
GOLD: Torben Grael/Marcelo Ferreira, BRA (5,4,1,1,2,5,2,7,11,4,(DNC)) 42 pts
SILVER: Ross MacDonald/Mike Wolfs CAN (7,11,4,3,1,5.2/RDG,8,(14),8,2,2) 51.2 pts BRONZE: Xavier Rohart/Pascal Rambeau, FRA (3,9,6,(15),7,2,4,12,3,1,7) 54 pts
GBR
6, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell (8,3,12,9,6,3,16,5,7,(17),4) 73 pts

Tornado
GOLD:Roman Hagara/Hans Peter Steinacher, AUT (1,3,8,1,(14),8,4,1,2,5,1) 34 pts
SILVER: Charlie Ogletree/John Lovell, USA (2,2,1,6,9,9,6,7,1,2,(10)) 45 pts
BRONZE: Santiago Lange/Carlos Espinola ARG (7,1,6,5,6,(11),5,8,4,3,9) 54 pts
GBR
13, Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley (8,14,(17),12,7,14,8,3,16,15,15) 112 pts

49er
GOLD: Iker Martinez/Xavier Fernandez, ESP (3,11,7,5,1,(12),2,6,(12),1,8,2,8,2,4,7) 67 pts
SILVER: Rodion Luka/George Leonchuck, UKR (4,(15),3,7,2,(10),7,5,9,5,3,10,6,5,3,3) 72 pts
BRONZE: Chris Draper/Simon Hiscocks, GBR (8,5,6,3,10,8,1,(13),(11),8,2,4,1,9,6,6) 77 pts

Mistral Women
GOLD: Faustine Merret FRA (2,(13),1,4,2,4,4,5,4,3,2) 31 pts
SILVER: Yin Jian, CHN ((11),6,2,6,4,1,1,1,2,9,1) 33 pts
BRONZE: Alessandra Sensini, ITA ((7),1,6,3,1,2,3,6,3,2,7) 34 pts
GBR
9, Natasha Sturges ((16),10,3,9,9,15,12,11,15,11,9) 103 pts

Mistral Men
GOLD: Gal Fridman, ISR ((8),3,5,5,1,7,5,1,8,5,2) 42 pts
SILVER: Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, GRE (1,4,4,(14),6,13,2,3,5,4,10) 52 pts
BRONZE: Nick Dempsey, GBR (2,11,(15),10,2,9,1,10,1,6,1) 53 pts

Laser
GOLD: Robert Scheidt, BRA (3,8,1,3,8,4,(19),12,7,3,6) 55 pts
SILVER: Andreas Geritzer, AUT (4,1,(34),7,1,2,12,15,12,4,10) 68 pts
BRONZE: Vasilij Zbogar, SLO ((21),13,3,8,4,1,14,1,14,5,13) 76 pts
GBR
4, Paul Goodison (13,3,(28),5,11,7,1,9,8,7,17) 81 pts

Europe
GOLD: Siren Sundby, NOR (1,3,(DSQ),1,19,4,4,1,1,1, 12) 47 pts
SILVER: Lenka Smidova, CZE (10,13,1,13,1,(26),1,6,3,7,10) 65 pts
BRONZE: Signe Livbjerg, DEN (4,6,7,15,8,6,10,3,11,4,(25)) 74 pts
GBR
22, Laura Baldwin (21,14,9,23,20,22,(25),22,23,21,4) 178 pts

Yngling
GOLD: Shirley Robertson/Sarah Ayton/Sarah Webb, GBR (5,4,1,1,4,3,4,6,3,8,(DNC)) 39 pts
SILVER: Ruslana Taran/Ganna Kalinina/Svitlana Matevusheva, UKR (10,3,9,3,7,2,2,9,1,(16),5) 50 pts
BRONZE: Dorte O. Jensen/Helle Jespersen/Christina Otzen, DEN (1,14,5,5,5,6,3,4,6,5,(OCS)) 54 pts

Finn
GOLD: Ben Ainslie, GBR (9,(DSQ),1,1,4,1,2,3,2,1,14) 38 pts
SILVER: Rafael Trujillo, ESP (8,3,3,6,2,3,(OCS),4,5,2,13) 51 pts
BRONZE: Mateusz Kusznierewicz, POL (3,1,6,4,11,(OCS),17,1,7,4,1) 53 pts

470 Men
GOLD: Paul Foerster/Kevin Burnham, USA (1,8,2,15,9,4,3,7,18,4,(22)) 71 pts
SILVER: Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield, GBR (2,3,9,4,18,5,2,3,10,19,(23)) 74 pts
BRONZE: Kazuto Seki/Kenjiro Todoroki, JPN (3,7,(21),18,7,12,1,9,2,3,11) 90 pts

470 Women
GOLD: Sofia Bekatorou/Aimilia Tsoulfa, GRE (1,2,2,13,1,1,14,1,1,2,(21)) 38 pts
SILVER: Natalia Via-Dufresne/Sandra Azon ESP (2,4,9,15,(19),5,8,3,5,6,5) 62 pts
BRONZE: Therese Torgersson/Vendela Zachrisson SWE (9,10,7,2,3,(14),9,6,7,7,3) 63 pts
GBR
7, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson (5,14,15,4,5,6,17,(21),2,16,7) 91 pts