GBR triumph at Tokyo
After what must rank as one of the strangest Olympics ever to take place, Team GBR has continued its dominance in sailing, with British sailors taking five medals from the 10 fleets.
Despite being in doubt almost until the opening ceremony, the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games eventually went ahead smoothly, athletes and coaches widely praising their Japanese hosts’ hospitality and efficiency.
There were substantial compromises: no spectators, no family and friends to support, and no chance to explore Japan – competitors and staff were shepherded strictly between event locations and team bases. For stadium athletes used to the vibrant energy of a buoyed up crowd the lack of spectators will have been the most significant change.
But for the sailors – more used to competing without observers than with – the greater challenges at Enoshima remained those of Mother Nature, as the Olympic sailing venue delivered the expected high heat, humidity, and some frustratingly light winds.
However, the results tables tell their own story, as hugely experienced competitors demonstrated they were best able to contend with both tactically demanding conditions on the water and the shoreside distractions of a not-quite-as-planned Games to rise to the top.
They included Australian Matt Belcher, who
cemented his reputation as the greatest 470 sailor of all time when he took gold with longtime crew Will Ryan. Belcher has won eight world titles, five with Ryan, and achieved the rare feat of successfully reclaiming his Gold Medallist title from 2012, having won silver in 2016. Belcher now retires from the double-handed dinghy class, which for the next Games will be a mixed fleet.
“It’s been an incredible journey,” said Belcher after winning, “and a great honour to race alongside [Ryan].”
Other defending champions included Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze of Brazil, who won gold in the women’s skiff class, the 49erfx.
Matt Wearn continued Australia’s impressive history in the Laser, winning the country’s third gold medal in a row in the men’s single-handed dinghy (following Tom Slingsby in 2012 and Tom Burton in 2016). Wearn’s dominance was so great, he was assured gold even before the medal race started.
Anne-marie Rindom of Denmark was another returning medal holder to win gold, in the Laser Radial, despite a challenging downwind run.
“After the start, it was going kind of easy, but then it kind of crumbled beneath me,” she said. “I just lost everything on the downwind leg. And then my self-bailer didn’t work because there was so much seaweed stuck in it.
“The boat was filling up with water. So many things went wrong but I just kept fighting. I told myself to just keep breathing, take a deep breath and keep working hard until the end.”
BRITS ON FORM
However, the dominant flag at the medal ceremonies was once again the Union Jack, as British sailors won medals in five of the 10 fleets, including three golds.
First to claim metalware was Emma
Wilson, who took bronze in the RS:X women’s windsurfing fleet. After a tense pause with a day of cancellations due to no breeze, Dylan Fletcher and Stu Bithell followed up by taking gold in the 49er skiff.
The British 49er pair clinched the overall win in the final metres of the medal race, gybing across the line in a photo-finish with the German team of Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel. The Brits were ahead by centimetres, the highly-fancied New Zealand pairing of Pete Burling and Blair Tuke finished back in 3rd, demoting them to the silver.
Britain’s John Gimson and Anna Burnet also took silver in the mixed Nacra 17 fleet.
One of the most anticipated Medal Races of the Games was the last ever Finn competition at the Olympics. Britain’s Giles Scott, the defending
Gold Medallist, had a shocking start to the regatta, taking two 9th places while fancied Hungarian sailor Zsombor Berecz took two 2nds. However, Scott quickly dismissed any concerns that a busy year which included an America’s Cup campaign might’ve dulled his sharpness in the Finn by firing off four race wins in a row, then two more on the penultimate day.
Scott went into the Medal Race with a clear advantage over Berecz, but in a heartstopping start appeared to have made a rare miscalculation and returned, believing himself to have been over the line early. In fact, he had been clear after all.
“I went back to restart because I thought I might be over the line too early and I wasn’t sure,” Scott explained later.
“It was the one thing I told myself I couldn’t afford to do, but somehow that’s what I ended up doing. But I think that’s what the occasion [of the Olympics] does to you.”
With Scott restarting at the back of the pack, Berecz (HUN) rounded the top mark in 1st. In the lighter winds, there was not enough breeze for the Finn class’s ‘unlimited pumping’ rule to be in place, and at the end of the first downwind leg Scott was back to 7th, one point away from the gold medal.
For the next lap the podium positions flickered back and forth between Giles Scott and Berecz, each trying to get past enough boats to tip their overall scores. At the last mark rounding Berecz just took the lead, and set off on the short reach to the finish with the gold in his grasp. He crossed the line in 1st, but behind him Scott somehow managed to claw his way past two more boats in the dying moments of the race to claim gold by just two seconds.
Giles Scott’s double gold, following on from
Iain Percy and Ben Ainslie, means British sailors have now won in the Finn at every Olympic
Games since 2000.