2016 Rio Olympic Games - Great Scott secures gold for Great Britain

by Andy Rice on 15 Aug 2016 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games - As the RS:X fleets did battle in their Medal Races, the Finns, 470s, and Nacra 17 fleets continued their racing across Rio de Janeiro. Giles Scott (GBR) has won gold in the Finn with a race to spare. The reigning Olympic Champions in the Men's and Women's 470s are struggling to defend their titles. And the oldest sailor in the competition is showing his young Nacra 17 rivals the way round the track.

Heavyweight Men's One Person Dinghy – Finn

Giles Scott (GBR) won the gold medal in the Finn without needing to contest the Medal Race on Tuesday. The four-time and reigning World Champion was always expected to dominate the competition in Rio but where other favourites have faltered at this tricky venue, the Great Briton has delivered exactly what was expected of him. An eighth and second place from Sunday's races on the Niterói course were sufficient to give him the winning margin.

For the 28-year-old, this has been a long time coming. Many believed he would have won gold four years earlier at London 2012, but he had to bide his time as Ben Ainslie earned selection ahead of him and went on to win his fourth Olympic gold in a tense Medal Race where the outcome of the medals was in doubt until the very last second.

No such doubt for Scott, who has avoided having to earn his gold medal on the vagaries of the fluky Medal Race course under the shadow of Sugarloaf Mountain. Even the usually invincible Briton looked mortal as he opened his Olympic campaign with a 17th place on the Sugarloaf course earlier in the week. Since then however, Scott has scored seven of the ten qualifying races inside the top three, and three of those were race wins.

Scott doesn't normally show much emotion, but today he did. 'I know what it meant to me because of the way it made me feel towards the last stages of that final race. I just found myself welling up and in tingles as it slowly dawned on me what I'd done. I wouldn't put myself down as the emotional sort but I had a little cry to myself which I like to think I don't do that often. Just the emotions that come out of you in that situation you can't prepare yourself for. It's been amazing.

'When we put the campaign together after London, Matt (Howard), my coach and I we decided that we wanted to campaign flat out. We weren't going to go soft in any regattas and everything we went to, we wanted to win and win it in style.

'That approach is great but it does put a target on your back. Especially two or three years out that target inevitably gets closer as everybody ups their game. To have been able to maintain that gap enough into the Olympics with a race to spare - it gives great justification to those decisions earlier on.”

While others might not be that surprised at the level of Scott's dominance, he certainly was. 'If you'd have asked me, would I have won the Olympic Games before the Medal Race in Rio? I'd have said absolutely not because of the venue that it is. The racing that we've had this week I've managed to sail more consistently. It's such a privileged situation to be in because the two days from now, everybody else is going to be fighting it out for those medals. It's going to be incredibly stressful and to be able to say I'm not going to have to go through that is pretty nice.”

With a 24-point lead over second place, Scott will sail Tuesday's Medal Race as a formality. Vasilij Zbogar (SLO) holds a 13 point lead over Ivan Gaspic (CRO), which sets up the Slovenian nicely for the silver medal, while the Croatian will have to be mindful of the fourth and fifth placed sailors, Caleb Paine (USA) and Max Salminen (SWE) in the fight for the remaining medals.

Women's Two Person Dinghy – 470

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL) won race six of the Women's 470 only to discover they had been UFD disqualified for crossing the start line too soon. Having already picked up a disqualification from race one, the reigning Olympic Champions now have a mountain to climb if they're to win a repeat gold.

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR) continue to hold the lead, although the team now closest to them are the Americans four points back, Anne Haeger and Brian Provancha (USA). Third place is held by Tina Mrak and Veronika Macarol (SLO), although just a point behind are reigning World Champions Camille Lecointre and Hélène de France (FRA) and a point further behind the French are Ai Kondo and Miho Yoshioka (JPN).

Men's Two Person Dinghy – 470

Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) have extended their lead over arch-rivals Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS). Once again, whatever the wildly variable conditions in Rio can throw at the Croatians, they seem to have an answer and today the result was three, four for Croatia, eight, ten for Australia. With an 11-point gap between them, Belcher will really need to turn it on for the final three qualifying races if he's to retain his Olympic crown.

London 2012 silver medallist Luke Patience (GBR) and his crew Chris Grube had a torrid time of the racing, picking up a UFD disqualification followed by a 20th place, which has dropped the British from third to tenth overall. This moves Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis (GRE) up to third.

Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17

Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG) have won the qualifying series in the Nacra 17 fleet after rounding off their scores with a second and first place. This means that Lange, the oldest competitor in the Olympic sailing competition at 57, holds a five point lead over Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri (ITA) going into Tuesday's Medal Race. There are seven teams with a shot at gold, the others being AUT, AUS, NZL, SUI and FRA.

Billy Besson and Marie Riou (FRA) couldn't follow up with the quite the stellar performance of the previous day, yet the four-time World Champions do have the slimmest of opportunities to come away with the Olympic title. That would be quite a turnaround after the week Besson has endured with his painful and debilitating back injury.

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race											Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	MR	Total	Net
1	GBR	Giles Scott	(17)	3	2	1	11	1	1	3	8	2		49	32
2	SLO	Vasilij Zbogar	3	1	7	10	(15)	9	5	4	9	8		71	56
3	CRO	Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic	6	8	10	(15)	8	8	4	10	2	13		84	69
4	USA	Caleb Paine	7	10	(21)	3	14	2	17	7	10	4		95	74
5	SWE	Max Salminen	(15)	11	13	9	7	5	6	11	7	5		89	74
6	BRA	Jorge Zarif	4	6	11	(22)	2	19	2	13	15	9		103	81
7	NZL	Josh Junior	18	(24) DSQ	14	14	5	3	18	2	4	6		108	84
8	ARG	Facundo Olezza	1	9	19	18	16	(22)	10	6	1	7		109	87
9	NED	Pieter-Jan Postma	14	13	12	4	4	6	14	1	19	(24) DSQ		111	87
10	AUS	Jake Lilley	16	(24) UFD	8	6	6	4	3	5	23	16		111	87
11	GRE	Ioannis Mitakis	12	(24) DNF	3	2	13	12	21	9	13	3		112	88
12	HUN	Zsombor Berecz	9	(24) UFD	5	12	1	7	12	18	16	12		116	92
13	TUR	Alican Kaynar	2	5	6	(19)	19	13	8	17	12	11		112	93
14	FRA	Jonathan Lobert	10	(15)	1	7	12	14	11	12	14	14		110	95
15	FIN	Tapio Nirkko	20	7	15	5	3	(24) DNF	20	21	6	10		131	107
16	DEN	Jonas Hogh-Christensen	13	2	4	(24) DNF	10	11	16	16	17	20		133	109
17	NOR	Anders Pedersen	8	16	18	8	(22)	16	9	14	5	15		131	109
18	ITA	Giorgio Poggi	11	4	16	11	18	15	7	(19)	11	18		130	111
19	URU	Alejandro Foglia Costa	21	(24) UFD	9	17	20	21	15	15	3	1		146	122
20	EST	Deniss Karpak	5	14	17	20	(23)	10	13	8	18	21		149	126
21	CAN	Tom Ramshaw	19	12	(22)	13	9	17	22	20	20	19		173	151
22	CHN	Lei Gong	22	(24) DNF	20	16	21	20	19	22	21	17		202	178
23	SEY	Allan Julie	(23)	17	23	21	17	18	23	23	22	22		209	186

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					28	20
2	USA	Anne Haeger Briana Provancha	7	3	(10)	2	5	5	2					34	24
3	AUT	Lara Vadlau Jolanta Ogar	3	(12)	12	5	6	1	5					44	32
4	SLO	Tina Mrak Veronika Macarol	2	6	5	4	(21) DSQ	12	4					54	33
5	FRA	Camille Lecointre Hélène Defrance	6	(18)	2	3	4	13	7					53	35
6	JPN	Ai Kondo Yoshida Miho Yoshioka	1	4	3	7	(19)	9	12					55	36
7	NZL	Jo Aleh Polly Powrie	(21) DSQ	1	4	1	12	21 UFD	3					63	42
8	BRA	Fernanda Oliveira Ana Luiza Barbachan	5	5	13	10	2	(21) UFD	9					65	44
9	NED	Afrodite Zegers Anneloes van Veen	(15)	2	8	8	14	4	11					62	47
10	CHI	Nadja Horwitz Sofia Middleton	9	11	(18)	16	10	2	10					76	58
11	AUS	Carrie Smith Jaime Ryan	16	8	11	(17)	7	6	14					79	62
12	SUI	Linda Fahrni Maja Siegenthaler	8	(15)	15	12	9	10	8					77	62
13	ESP	Bàrbara Cornudella Ravetllat Sara López Ravetllat	(14)	13	7	11	13	11	13					82	68
14	GER	Annika Bochmann Marlene Steinherr	12	16	17	(21) DNF	15	3	6					90	69
15	POL	Agnieszka Skrzypulec Irmina Gliszczynska	10	14	9	(21) RET	3	14	19					90	69
16	RUS	Alisa Kirilyuk Liudmila Dmitrieva	(21) UFD	21 DSQ	6	9	11	7	18					93	72
17	CHN	Lizhu Huang Xiaoli Wang	11	10	14	13	16	16	(17)					97	80
18	ITA	Elena Berta Alice Sinno	13	(19)	16	14	8	15	16					101	82
19	ISR	Nina Amir	(21) UFD	9	19	15	17	17	15					113	92
20	SIN	Jovina Choo Amanda Ng	17	17	20	(21) DNF	18	21 UFD	20					134	113

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					18	14
2	AUS	Mathew Belcher William Ryan	8	1	3	3	2	8	(10)					35	25
3	GRE	Panagiotis Mantis Pavlos Kagialis	9	3	1	5	(13)	9	5					45	32
4	FRA	Sofian Bouvet Jeremie Mion	6	6	10	2	6	6	(14)					50	36
5	AUT	Matthias Schmid Florian Reichstädter	3	9	6	9	(16)	2	13					58	42
6	USA	Stuart Mcnay David Hughes	10	7	8	(13)	4	7	6					55	42
7	SWE	Anton Dahlberg Fredrik Bergström	22	8	2	4	8	(27) UFD	1					72	45
8	SUI	Yannick Brauchli Romuald Hausser	11	4	(19)	7	10	10	8					69	50
9	NZL	Paul Snow-Hansen Daniel Willcox	2	10	20	15	(23)	5	2					77	54
10	GBR	Luke Patience Chris Grube	21	5	5	6	1	(27) UFD	20					85	58
11	ESP	Jordi Xammar Hernandez Joan Herp Morell	4	16	14	10	9	(22)	7					82	60
12	GER	Ferdinand Gerz Oliver Szymanski	13	18	9	23	14	1	(24)					102	78
13	TUR	Deniz Cinar Ates Cinar	14	(19)	18	12	7	15	12					97	78
14	KOR	Chang ju Kim ji-hoon kim	5	(25)	12	8	20	13	21					104	79
15	RUS	Pavel Sozykin Denis Gribanov	12	17	7	(25)	5	21	18					105	80
16	ARG	Lucas Calabrese Juan de la Fuente	(17)	14	11	11	17	12	15					97	80
17	RSA	Asenathi Jim Roger Beresford Hudson	18	(24)	15	14	11	18	11					111	87
18	FIN	Joonas Lindgren Niklas Lindgren	20	11	23	18	(24)	19	3					118	94
19	ISR	Eyal Levine Dan Froyliche	7	15	17	(21)	21	20	16					117	96
20	CHN	Wei Wang Zangjun Xu	(23)	12	13	22	19	11	19					119	96
21	JPN	Kazuto Doi Kimihiko Imamura	15	21	16	16	15	16	(22)					121	99
22	CAN	Jacob Chaplin-Saunders Graeme Chaplin-Saunders	(26)	20	22	19	12	14	17					130	104
23	CHI	Andres Ducasse Francisco Ducasse	(24)	22	24	20	18	4	23					135	111
24	BRA	Henrique Haddad Bruno Amorim	19	23	25	17	22	(27) UFD	9					142	115
25	UKR	Borys Shvets Pavlo Matsuyev	16	13	21	24	(25)	17	25					141	116
26	ANG	Matias Montinho Paixao Afonso	25	26	(27) DNF	27 DNF	26	23	26					180	153

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race													Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	MR	Total	Net
1	ARG	Santiago Lange Cecilia Carranza Saroli	11	2	13	2	12	6	1	6	9	(21) BFD	2	1		86	65
2	ITA	Vittorio Bissaro Silvia Sicouri	10	12	3	3	3	7	6	(13)	13	2	7	4		83	70
3	AUT	Thomas Zajac Tanja Frank	(12)	3	12	6	9	8	8	3	4	10	4	5		84	72
4	AUS	Jason Waterhouse Lisa Darmanin	6	7	4	1	1	5	15	11	11	1	12	(17)		91	74
5	NZL	Gemma Jones Jason Saunders	9	(13)	7	5	4	2	4	8	12	13	13	2		92	79
6	SUI	Matías Bühler Nathalie Brugger	1	6	6	(19)	11	18	10	7	5	5	1	10		99	80
7	FRA	Billy Besson Marie Riou	7	(17)	15	8	13	15	2	1	1	3	11	7		100	83
8	GBR	Ben Saxton Nicola Groves	3	4	2	7	5	3	13	12	(16)	15	15	12		107	91
9	USA	Bora Gulari Louisa Chafee	13	9	(21) RET	12	21 RET	4	9	2	8	8	9	3		119	98
10	BRA	Samuel Albrecht Isabel Swan	17	1	17	9	2	16	12	4	(19)	7	8	8		120	101
11	ESP	Fernando Echávarri Erasun Tara Pacheco van Rijnsoever	16	(21) DSQ	5	16	15	10	11	5	3	4	10	6		122	101
12	DEN	Allan Norregaard Anette Viborg	8	8	9	14	10	12	(17)	9	7	11	5	15		125	108
13	GER	Paul Kohlhoff Carolina Werner	14	10	10	17	8	13	5	10	2	9	14	(18)		130	112
14	NED	Mandy Mulder Coen de Koning	5	11	(21) UFD	11	7	14	7	21 UFD	6	14	3	13		133	112
15	CAN	Luke Ramsay Nikola Girke	4	15	8	10	16	9	18	(21) UFD	15	12	17	9		154	133
16	ARU	Nicole van der Velden Thijs Visser	15	16	1	15	14	1	(19)	17	10	16	16	14		154	135
17	URU	Pablo Defazio Abella Mariana Foglia Costa	(19)	5	11	13	17	19	16	16	17	6	6	16		161	142
18	GRE	Sofia Bekatorou Michalis Pateniotis	(21) DNF	21 DSQ	16	4	6	11	3	15	14	18	21 UFD	19		169	148
19	SIN	Justin Liu Denise Lim	2	14	14	18	18	17	14	14	18	17	(21) UFD	11		178	157
20	TUN	Hedi Gharbi Rihab Hammami	18	(21) UFD	18	21 DNF	19	20	20	18	20	19	18	20		232	211