Great Britain is the top performing nation at Rio Olympic Sailing

by RYA on 19 Aug 2016 Two golds for Giles Scott (Finn) and Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (470 Women) plus Nick Dempsey’s RS:X windsurfing silver ensured Britain has topped the best sailing nation table for four of the last five Olympics.

On the final day of the Rio 2016 sailing regatta today (Thursday 18 August), Mills and Clark finally confirmed the victory they all but wrapped up by putting a 20-point gap between themselves and Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL) on Tuesday.

After yesterday’s postponement for lack of breeze, an eighth in today’s double points Medal Race ensured they were the Rio 2016 champions.

Mills said: “We ran down the beach. I just wanted to see my mum, she’s been here the whole time supporting me, along with my family back at home. It is just such an amazing moment to be able to share with everyone. When you’re out on the water you’re doing it on your own and it was nice to be able to come in and see everyone.”

Saskia said: “It wasn’t a forgone conclusion today; we knew we could have lost the medal. We didn’t want to look stupid stood here without a medal after everyone had already been cheering for us, so we knew we had to be sensible and just do the same boring routine things that we’ve been doing for the last ten days. The big fear was suffering a breakage, such as the mast breaking, so we couldn’t finish the race.”

There was Medal Race disappointment for Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign in the 49er after a second lap capsize ended their chances of finishing their first Olympics on the podium, as they crossed the line in 10th spot to finish the event sixth overall.

Having to put four boats between themselves and Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS), to stay in medal contention, and having edged themselves ahead of the Aussies approaching the second downwind mark, the Brits lost control of the boat dropping the kite and also had to do penalty turns.

Nevertheless, Fletcher and Sign will take positives from their Rio show.

Fletcher said: “It’s been a week of two halves. The first two days were really bad, we weren’t sailing too good and then we turned it around in the last two days of fleet racing and we are really happy with how we did that to bring us back into contention. Ultimately it didn’t work out for us on the day.”

Luke Patience and Chris Grube ended their Rio 2016 on a high with a third in the 470 Men’s Medal Race seeing them end the event fifth overall.

It was an impressive end to a full-on eight months for the pair who only started sailing together again after Elliot Willis, who Patience had campaigned with for the Rio Olympic cycle, was diagnosed with cancer in late 2015.

Patience said: “I know today’s race wasn’t for medals but we treated it like it was and showed our true qualities because we had a bad start and we fought and fought. I’m happy, it’s been such a pleasure to sail with Chris over the last eight months.”

Grube, who has a toddler son, Edward, continued: “I am really proud of what we have achieved and thanks to Luke for giving me the opportunity to sail with him again, I have loved every moment. That last race sums it up for me, I really enjoyed the racing, it’s been so much fun. My little boy has been cheering us on all week.”

It was a tough day in the office for Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth in the 49erFX Medal Race after a start line penalty and a mid-race capsize saw them cross the line in 10th to end their debut Games in eighth overall. The duo admit it has been four years they will never forget.

Dobson said: “It has been a magical experience, from start to finish, way more than I expected it to be. It’s amazing to be part of such a strong, supportive GB team. It’s been really nice to share in all the success and hopefully one day that might be us.”

Ainsworth added: “We had some fantastic racing so we can hold onto that, there are some positive to take home.”

More reaction on the team’s success will follow tomorrow.