Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson celebrate after the 470 women’s medal race at Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center in Qingdao yesterday.SD-Agencies
AUSTRALIAN crews won both the men’s and women’s two-person 470 dinghy races in Qingdao yesterday to register the country’s first sailing Olympic gold medals of the Beijing Games.
Three-time 470 world champions Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page easily defended their 22-point lead in the final day’s racing, winning men’s gold with a total of 44 points from 11 races.
Britain’s Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield took silver with 75 points while French pair Nicolas Charbonnier and Olivier Bausset claimed bronze with 78.
“We sailed stably and conservatively throughout this regatta and we tried to stay in single digit numbers,” said Wilmot. “At the end we did better than we hoped.”
The pair will retire from 470 sailing after the Olympics and Page said the wait for a first Olympic medal had been worthwhile.
Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson secured Australia’s second gold of the day with a total of 43 points from their 11 races in the women’s event.
Silver went to Marcelien de Koning and Lobke Berkhout with 53 points while Brazil’s Fernanda Oliveira and Isabel Swan secured bronze with 60 points.
The Danish team of Jonas Warrer and Martin Kirketterp Ibsen were confirmed as gold medal winners in the 49er category. The results of the race were put on hold after protests were lodged by competitors and race officials Sunday because the Danes used a boat borrowed from the Croatian team after they broke a mast on the way to the start of the final race, which took place with waves of up to two meters.
Spain’s Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez earned the silver medal, and German brothers Jan-Peter and Hannes Peckolt captured the bronze.(SD-Agencies)