Wilson rides wave of GB success to secure medal in windsurfing
Team GB’S medal tally is guaranteed to rise by at least one tomorrow, when 22-year-old Emma Wilson, the youngest member of the British sailing team, will compete for gold in the RS:X (windsurfing) class.
Wilson, whose mother, former world champion windsurfer Penny Way, represented Britain at the 1992 and 1996 Games, has had a dream Olympic debut, winning four of her 12 fleet races to lie second overall heading into tomorrow’s points race. She has a rest day today. Even allowing for the fact that medal races in sailing count double, Wilson is 24 points clear of her rival in fourth place, with only a maximum of 20 points on offer tomorrow.
She will battle it out with China’s Lu Yunxiu, who is four points ahead of her, and France’s Charline Picon, who is two points behind, to see who gets gold, silver and bronze.
“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” she said after finishing sixth, first and fifth in yesterday’s three races. “My coach told me over the radio [that she had a guaranteed medal] and it’s an amazing feeling.
“I’ve watched the Olympics since I was a little kid, and it’s always been a dream.” Wilson, who finished fourth at the Olympic test event in 2019 and fourth again at the World Championships the following year, added: “And, finally, I haven’t come fourth, which is so good because I’m sick of it!”
Wilson’s sailing medal could be the first of many for Team GB.
While interest has been focused mainly on swimming, taekwondo and rowing, the sailors have quietly been enjoying a brilliant start.
Heading into this morning’s fleet races, British sailors were leading in three of the 10 classes – including defending champion Giles Scott in the Finn, who won four races on the trot on Wednesday and yesterday – coming second in three others, and in the top six in two more.
Only Alison Young in the Laser Radial and Elliot Hanson in the Laser were not placed in the top 10 of their classes.
Four-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie described the performances at the midway stage of the regatta as “seriously impressive”. “Keep it going team and finish the job,” he tweeted. Wilson will certainly aim to finish her campaign on a high.
“One more race I can just give everything for and just see what can happen,” said Wilson, who grew up in Christchurch in Dorset, where she spent her early summers being towed behind her mother’s windsurfing board in a rubber dinghy alongside older brother Dan, also now an international windsurfer.
“I’m really proud of how I’ve approached the whole event.
“I kept my cool when it was tight, and I’ve had really good speed the last few days.
“It’s an amazing feeling. I want to ring my brother because he has been pushing me since I was a little kid as well. That’s going to be cool.”