Olympic Sailing Team NZL Daily Wrap 21 August

by Jodie Bakewell-White on 21 Aug 2008 The 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta has concluded today with the Star class medal race – New Zealand’s Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams have finished 9th.

With the wrap up of the Star medal race, sailed in gusty winds, rain and big waves off Qingdao, all eleven Olympic champions have now been decided.

New Zealand’s Final Results
Gold - Tom Ashley, Men’s RS:X
5th - Andrew Murdoch, Laser
6th - Barbara Kendall, Women’s RS:X
7th - Jo Aleh, Laser Radial
9th - Hamish Pepper & Carl Williams, Star
11th - Carl Evans & Peter Burling, Men’s 470
12th - Dan Slater, Finn

New Zealand’s top performance was far and away the gold medal from RS:X windsurfer Tom Ashley, who since his winning race yesterday has been busy fulfilling media commitments.

New Zealand’s most recent Olympic gold medalist had this to say after yesterday’s conclusion to the Men’s RS:X event, “I’ve done it! It’s the most incredible feeling and I can’t begin to tell you how I feel right now.”

“I’ve been working toward this for so many years. It was an insanely tough medal race.”

“The weather had a little bit of everything. I tried to sail as consistently as I could.”

The New Zealand team in Qingdao is extremely proud of the new Olympic champion.

“Tom you’re a legend!! An impressive effort to finally stand on top of the podium!” team-mate Carl William’s commented yesterday, “A true professional with one goal in mind. Being the best!”

Another four kiwi crews had top ten showings with Andrew Murdoch, New Zealand’s second best result at the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta. While Murdoch was disappointed to not return a sailing medal at this Games for his country, 5th place in the hard fought 43 strong Laser fleet is no mean feat.

In today’s Star class medal race Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams came home in 8th place which means their overall result is 9th place. Today’s race sailed on course A in rainy, blustery conditions was quite a spectacle for the crowd on the breakwall, who came out to watch despite the weather.

The battle for the gold medal went the way of Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson of Great Britain, who were lying 2nd going into the medal race. Robert Scheidt of Brazil got up to claim the silver edging out Fredrick Loof of Sweden on count back, who went into today’s race with the lead and came away with the bronze medal.

Star Final Results (top five)
Gold GBR Iain Percy & Andrew Simpson
Silver BRA Robert Scheidt & Bruno Prada
Bronze SWE Fredrik Loof & Anders Ekstrom
4th POL Mateusz Kusznierewicz & Dominik Zycki
5th SUI Flavio Marazzi & Enrico De Maria

9th NZL Hamish Pepper & Carl Williams

Men’s RS:X Final Results (top five)
Gold NZL Tom Ashley
Silver FRA Julien Bontemps
Bronze ISR Shahar Zubari
4th GBR Nick Dempsey
5th BRA Ricardo Santos

Women’s RS:X Final Results (top six)
Gold CHN Jian Yin
Silver ITA Alessandra Sensini
Bronze GBR Bryony Shaw
4th ESP Marina Alabau
5th AUS Jessica Crisp
6th NZL Barbara Kendall