2016 Rio Olympic Games - Giles Scott claims Finn gold in Rio

by Imogen Stanley on 15 Aug 2016 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games - Giles Scott has guaranteed he will claim Olympic Finn gold on his Games debut after another outstanding performance in Rio today (Sunday 14 August).

Heading into their final two races of the 10-race opening series today, Scott held a 17-point advantage over his nearest rival Vasilij Zbogar (SLO).

And scores of eighth and second from the Finn’s two races out on the Nitero?i ocean course outside of Guanabara Bay this evening mean the four-time World Champion Scott cannot be knocked off the top of the podium in Tuesday’s Medal Race.

With that race worth double points, even if Scott, 29, was disqualified and scored the worst possible result of 22 points, he still couldn’t be beaten to the gold medal.

He said: “I know what it means to me because I know how it made me feel towards the last stages of that final race. I found myself welling up, in tingles as it slowly dawned on me what I had done and 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.

“The emotions that end come out of you in that situation you can’t really prepare yourself for, it was amazing. If you had asked me if I would win the Olympic Games with a race to spare I would have said absolutely not because of Rio as a venue.

“With the conditions we have had this week have been, I have just managed to sail more consistently than everyone else at the top of the fleet and has landed me in this brilliant situation where I have the points gap I have before the medal race. It’s just a privilege to be in this position.”

Scott’s victory means that Britain has now won the Finn men’s heavyweight dinghy class as the last five Olympics – Iain Percy (Sydney 2000), Ben Ainslie (Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012) and Scott (Rio 2016).

Speaking to the BBC’s Shirley Robertson immediately after racing, Scott admitted having his name now alongside such legends of the sport was “very special to him”.

He also paid tribute to his coach, Matt Howard, with whom he delivered the perfect four-year campaign after the disappointment of missing out on London 2012 selection to Ainslie, the man whose huge shoes he has now so impeccably filled.

Scott added: “Matt and I decided the way we wanted to campaign was flat out, we weren’t going to go soft on any regattas that we went to, anything 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. To be able to maintain that gap and to come into the Olympics and win with a race to spare, it just gives huge justification for those decisions we made early on.”

The Finn Medal Race is scheduled for to take place on the Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf) course from 1pm BST on Tuesday.

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