Rio 2016 - Golds secured early by British 470 Women and Kiwi 49er Men

by Andy Rice on 17 Aug 2016 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games - There has been plenty of drama going on across Guanabara Bay besides the four Medal Races at Rio 2016's Olympic sailing competition. Two gold medals have been decided with a day to spare and the 49erFX Medal Race is set to be a humdinger.

Men's Skiff - 49er

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) have won the 49er Men's gold medal, and did it with two races to spare after dominating the 20-boat fleet at Rio 2016 over the past week. The New Zealanders have gone undefeated in major competition in the 49er fleet since taking the silver medal at London 2012. They have won all four of the last World Championships and were expected to deliver gold for New Zealand this week. Even Burling and Tuke might be surprised at the ease with which they've managed their extraordinary feat, however.

Behind them the battle rages on for the other medals, with Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel (GER) holding second place in front of the 2012 Olympic Champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS).

Women's Two Person Dinghy – 470

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR) have won the Women's 470 gold medal with the Medal Race to spare. The British team, who took silver four years ago at London 2012, sailed a very solid day with scores of three, two, three to carry an unassailable 20-point advantage into tomorrow's Medal Race. The only thing that stands in the Brits' way is if they receive a technical two-point penalty for failing to follow pre-Medal Race procedures. But they're unlikely to jeopardise their gold with any such oversight. Their arch-rivals, the defending Olympic Champions Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL) have sailed an incredible comeback series after clocking up two expensive disqualifications earlier in the competition.

The Kiwis' scores of one, one, four today have lifted them back to the silver medal position, with the double-points Medal Race poised for a fierce battle for silver and bronze as six teams are separated by just 11 points. They are Slovenia, USA, France, Japan and the Netherlands. Austria's double World Champions have had a disappointing week by their high standards, but Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar still have an outside shot at silver or bronze.

Women's Skiff – 49erFX

Four into three, doesn't go. We know that from watching the Laser Radial Women's race at London 2012 four years ago. For the 49erFX Women's Medal Race we are looking at an identical scenario with four crews going into Thursday's finale on an equal footing. They are Tamara Echegoyen and Berta Betanzos (ESP), Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA), Jena Hansen and Katja Salskov-Iversen (DEN) and Alex Maloney and Molly Meech (NZL).

The fact that that the fourth-placed New Zealanders sit a point behind the top three tied on 76 points is academic because the Medal Race is a double-pointer. The order that they cross the line will determine what colour of medal they win. Or if they will be the unfortunate ones to win nothing at all.

Three of the four teams have won a 49erFX World Championship, the odd ones out being the Danes who do however have a European title. But, any of these teams would happily trade those titles for an Olympic gold at Rio 2016. Only one of these eight sailors, Spain's Echegoyen, knows what it feels like to be Olympic Champion after winning gold in the Women's Match Racing four years ago.

Men's Two Person Dinghy – 470

Earlier in the day, Laser sailor Tonci Stipanovic made history to become the first sailor to win an Olympic medal for Croatia. But Laser silver could be eclipsed less than 24 hours later by 470 Men's gold. Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) have sailed a stellar week in tough conditions, and the reward is an 11-point gap over the nearest opposition. That opposition, you might have thought would be Australia. But no, it's the Greeks, Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis (GRE), who now sit in silver medal position after notching up three second places on Tuesday afternoon.

Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS) have a lot to do if they're to keep the gold medal for Australia, a nation which has all but owned this event since it won its first of many 470 golds back in Sydney 2000. The Aussies sit just two points behind the Greeks so silver is well within their grasp. Gold is more of a stretch. Such is the lead of the top three, no other team can attack the podium. The best of the rest is the American crew, Stu McNay and David Hughes (USA).

The 470 medals will be decided when the sailing resumes with the Medal Race on 17 August at 13:00 local time. The Skiffs have a lay day before the final Medal Races of the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition.

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race													Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	MR	Total	Net
1	NZL	Peter Burling Blair Tuke	1	1	5	2	(7)	6	2	3	1	3	5	4		40	33
2	GER	Erik Heil Thomas Ploessel	6	3	1	3	4	13	14	4	5	10	4	(18)		85	67
3	AUS	Nathan Outteridge Iain Jensen	(13)	8	2	5	10	12	4	5	8	2	7	7		83	70
4	GBR	Dylan Fletcher-Scott Alain Sign	15	10	7	(20)	14	4	5	6	9	1	6	3		100	80
5	DEN	Jonas Warrer Christian Peter Lübeck	8	9	(21) DSQ	15	1	5	6	13	14	18	1	2		113	92
6	FRA	Julien d'Ortoli Noe Delpech	(20)	12	16	12	2	9	1	1	3	17	9	14		116	96
7	ARG	Yago Lange Klaus Lange	11	7	6	16	12	16	(21) DSQ	2	2	11	3	11		118	97
8	IRL	Ryan Seaton Matthew Mcgovern	14	2	4	1	13	17	12	7	13	19	(20)	1		123	103
9	ESP	Diego Botín le Chever Iago López Marra	16	5	3	13	6	10	13	15	(18)	12	2	13		126	108
10	POL	Lukasz Przybytek Pawel Kolodzinski	2	13	9	9	5	9.3 RDG	(18)	11	7	16	18	9		126.3	108.3
11	BRA	Marco Grael Gabriel Borges	10	11	8	7	(19)	7	10	17	10	8	15	6		128	109
12	AUT	Nico Delle - Karth Nikolaus Resch	17	6	10	18	3	14	3	14	(21) DNF	4	11	16		137	116
13	SUI	Sebastien Schneiter Lucien Cujean	5	16	12	4	(17)	15	15	10	16	5	17	5		137	120
14	ITA	Ruggero Tita Pietro Zucchetti	7	(20)	19	11	15	8	9	9	6	7	10	19		140	120
15	CRO	Pavle Kostov Petar Cupac	9	17	11	10	11	1	17	(18)	15	13	8	10		140	122
16	POR	Jorge Lima José Costa	4	4	18	6	16	(21) DSQ	11	19	4	9	19	12		143	122
17	BEL	Yannick Lefèbvre Tom Pelsmaekers	19	14	13	17	9	3	8	8	12	(20)	14	8		145	125
18	JPN	Yukio Makino Kenji Takahashi	3	15	17	8	8	2	19	12	17	15	16	(20)		152	132
19	USA	Thomas Barrows, III Joseph Morris	18	19	14	14	(21) DSQ	11	16	16	11	6	13	17		176	155
20	CHI	Benjamin Grez Ahrens Cristóbal Grez Ahrens	12	18	15	19	18	(21) DSQ	7	20	21 DNF	14	12	15		192	171

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race											Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	MR	Total	Net
1	GBR	Hannah Mills Saskia Clark	4	7	1	6	1	(8)	1	3	2	3		36	28
2	NZL	Jo Aleh Polly Powrie	(21) DSQ	1	4	1	12	21 UFD	3	1	1	4		69	48
3	USA	Anne Haeger Briana Provancha	7	3	(10)	2	5	5	2	8	8	9		59	49
4	FRA	Camille Lecointre Hélène Defrance	6	(18)	2	3	4	13	7	7	6	2		68	50
5	JPN	Ai Kondo Yoshida Miho Yoshioka	1	4	3	7	(19)	9	12	4	11	1		71	52
6	NED	Afrodite Zegers Anneloes van Veen	(15)	2	8	8	14	4	11	2	3	7		74	59
7	SLO	Tina Mrak Veronika Macarol	2	6	5	4	(21) DSQ	12	4	21 DSQ	5	6		86	65
8	BRA	Fernanda Oliveira Ana Luiza Barbachan	5	5	13	10	2	(21) UFD	9	6	13	5		89	68
9	AUT	Lara Vadlau Jolanta Ogar	3	12	12	5	6	1	5	16	(21) DSQ	14		95	74
10	POL	Agnieszka Skrzypulec Irmina Gliszczynska	10	14	9	(21) RET	3	14	19	12	7	8		117	96
11	CHI	Nadja Horwitz Sofia Middleton	9	11	(18)	16	10	2	10	10	14	15		115	97
12	ESP	Bàrbara Cornudella Ravetllat Sara López Ravetllat	14	13	7	11	13	11	13	(18)	9	10		119	101
13	RUS	Alisa Kirilyuk Liudmila Dmitrieva	(21) UFD	21 DSQ	6	9	11	7	18	9	12	11		125	104
14	SUI	Linda Fahrni Maja Siegenthaler	8	15	15	12	9	10	8	11	16	(19)		123	104
15	AUS	Carrie Smith Jaime Ryan	16	8	11	(17)	7	6	14	15	17	12		123	106
16	CHN	Lizhu Huang Xiaoli Wang	11	10	14	13	16	16	(17)	13	4	16		130	113
17	ISR	Nina Amir	(21) UFD	9	19	15	17	17	15	5	10	13		141	120
18	GER	Annika Bochmann Marlene Steinherr	12	16	17	(21) DNF	15	3	6	14	21 DSQ	17		142	121
19	ITA	Elena Berta Alice Sinno	13	19	16	14	8	15	16	19	15	(20)		155	135
20	SIN	Jovina Choo Amanda Ng	17	17	20	(21) DNF	18	21 UFD	20	17	18	18		187	166

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race											Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	MR	Total	Net
1	CRO	Sime Fantela Igor Marenic	1	2	4	1	3	3	4	(8)	6	3		35	27
2	GRE	Panagiotis Mantis Pavlos Kagialis	9	3	1	5	(13)	9	5	2	2	2		51	38
3	AUS	Mathew Belcher William Ryan	8	1	3	3	2	8	(10)	7	1	7		50	40
4	USA	Stuart Mcnay David Hughes	10	7	8	13	4	7	6	1	11	(14)		81	67
5	SWE	Anton Dahlberg Fredrik Bergström	22	8	2	4	8	(27) UFD	1	5	8	11		96	69
6	GBR	Luke Patience Chris Grube	21	5	5	6	1	(27) UFD	20	4	3	4		96	69
7	AUT	Matthias Schmid Florian Reichstädter	3	9	6	9	16	2	13	14	(17)	1		90	73
8	FRA	Sofian Bouvet Jeremie Mion	6	6	10	2	6	6	14	9	20	(22)		101	79
9	NZL	Paul Snow-Hansen Daniel Willcox	2	10	20	15	(23)	5	2	13	10	15		115	92
10	SUI	Yannick Brauchli Romuald Hausser	11	4	19	7	10	10	8	(22)	15	8		114	92
11	GER	Ferdinand Gerz Oliver Szymanski	13	18	9	23	14	1	(24)	6	4	6		118	94
12	ESP	Jordi Xammar Hernandez Joan Herp Morell	4	16	14	10	9	(22)	7	16	12	9		119	97
13	RUS	Pavel Sozykin Denis Gribanov	12	17	7	(25)	5	21	18	3	16	18		142	117
14	TUR	Deniz Cinar Ates Cinar	14	19	18	12	7	15	12	18	(21)	5		141	120
15	FIN	Joonas Lindgren Niklas Lindgren	20	11	23	18	(24)	19	3	10	9	10		147	123
16	ARG	Lucas Calabrese Juan de la Fuente	(17)	14	11	11	17	12	15	17	5	27 DNE		146	129
17	JPN	Kazuto Doi Kimihiko Imamura	15	21	16	16	15	16	(22)	12	7	17		157	135
18	CHN	Wei Wang Zangjun Xu	(23)	12	13	22	19	11	19	15	19	12		165	142
19	KOR	Chang ju Kim ji-hoon kim	5	(25)	12	8	20	13	21	23	24	20		171	146
20	RSA	Asenathi Jim Roger Beresford Hudson	18	(24)	15	14	11	18	11	20	18	23		172	148
21	ISR	Eyal Levine Dan Froyliche	7	15	17	21	21	20	16	19	(22)	16		174	152
22	CAN	Jacob Chaplin-Saunders Graeme Chaplin-Saunders	(26)	20	22	19	12	14	17	21	13	21		185	159
23	BRA	Henrique Haddad Bruno Amorim	19	23	25	17	22	(27) UFD	9	11	14	27 DSQ		194	167
24	CHI	Andres Ducasse Francisco Ducasse	24	22	24	20	18	4	23	(25)	23	13		196	171
25	UKR	Borys Shvets Pavlo Matsuyev	16	13	21	24	(25)	17	25	24	25	19		209	184
26	ANG	Matias Montinho Paixao Afonso	25	26	(27) DNF	27 DNF	26	23	26	26	26	24		256	229

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race													Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	MR	Total	Net
1	ESP	Tamara Echegoyen Dominguez Berta Betanzos Moro	4	(13)	3	1	11	5	4	1	1	5	10	1		59	46
2	BRA	Martine Soffiatti Grael Kahena Kunze	9	1	1	10	2	6	3	3	(11)	2	7	2		57	46
3	DEN	Jena Hansen Katja Salskov-Iversen	(21) UFD	2	2	2	4	2	9	16	2	1	2	4		67	46
4	NZL	Alexandra Maloney Molly Meech	6	5	4	4	5	1	6	(12)	3	3	5	5		59	47
5	FRA	Sarah Steyaert Aude Compan	1	9	10	12	12	13	1	9	4	(16)	1	3		91	75
6	ITA	Giulia Conti Francesca Clapcich	3	7	7	6	10	8	(15)	13	5	6	4	7		91	76
7	GBR	Charlotte Dobson Sophie Ainsworth	2	11	5	8	7	10	2	5	9	(15)	14	8		96	81
8	NED	Annemiek Bekkering Annette Duetz	(21) UFD	10	12	3	8	3	5	7	13	11	3	10		106	85
9	USA	Paris Henken Helena Scutt	13	(16)	14	5	1	4	11	8	8	12	12	6		110	94
10	GER	Victoria Jurczok Anika Lorenz	(21) UFD	8	8	7	6	7	17	10	7	9	6	9		115	94
11	SWE	Lisa Ericson Hanna Klinga	11	6	9	15	3	9	10	2	(16)	14	9	15		119	103
12	IRL	Andrea Brewster Saskia Tidey	8	3	6	18	13	14	(19)	6	18	8	13	12		138	119
13	ARG	Victoria Travascio Maria Branz	14	(20)	13	9	19	12	7	11	10	4	11	19		149	129
14	NOR	Ragna Agerup Maia Agerup	10	(18)	15	17	9	17	13	4	6	13	17	11		150	132
15	SIN	Griselda Khng Sara Tan	12	19	17	11	14	11	8	(20)	15	7	8	13		155	135
16	CAN	Erin Rafuse Dannie Boyd	5	4	11	16	16	16	(18)	17	12	18	16	14		163	145
17	FIN	Noora Ruskola Camilla Cedercreutz	7	12	16	13	(21) DSQ	15	14	15	14	10	20	18		175	154
18	CHI	Arantza Gumucio Begoña Gumucio	16	14	18	14	15	(19)	12	14	17	17	15	16		187	168
19	EST	Kätlin Tammiste Anna Maria Sepp	15	17	19	(20)	17	18	16	18	19	20	18	17		214	194
20	JPN	Keiko Miyagawa Sena Takano	(21) UFD	15	20	19	18	20	20	19	21 UFD	19	19	20		231	210