MEN'S MISTRAL GOLD GOES TO AUSTRIA

by Isabelle Musy on 24 Sep 2000 Men's Mistral medal competition lasted until the final race today.

Christoph Sieber had a 9 points lead over his two rivals after race 10 today.
The Austrian wind-surfer came 7th in the final heat and therefore grabs the gold medal of these Sydney 2000 Olympic games.

Argentina's Carlos Espinola gets silver and 2nd World ranked Kiwi, Aaron McIntosh gets bronze.

The latter was the best of the three medallists today as he finished in 3rd and 4th but that wasn't enough to overtake them on the point's table.

It's Greece's Nikolaos Kaklamanakis who won the final heat with a huge lead as he crossed the line 1 minute and 42 seconds in front of Urkaine's Maxim Oberemko.

Disappointment runs in the Australian camp as World top ranked Lars Kleppich finishes 4th overall ahead of China's Yuanguo Zhou.

Disappointment as well for World Ranked 3rd, French Alexandre Guyader who ends up in 12th place after having been regarded as one of the favourites.

It sure is a great performance for Austrian Sieber, currently world ranked 11th, who sailed very consistently.

The light air conditions they had at the beginning of the regatta suited him as he got 2 victories and a 2nd place.

But the man proved to perform well in the breeze. The wind today was the strongest one of the regatta so far.

The 12 knots south-east breeze picked up to 14 knots gusting to 15 knots on Sydney Harbour which favoured spectacular action on this Mistral and Tornado classes final day.

RACE 10 RESULTS: 1. CHN, 2. GBR, 3. NZL, 4. ISR, 5. AUT, 6. POL, 7. POR, 8. GER, 9. AUS, 10. VEN

RACE 11 RESULTS: 1. GRE, 2. UKR, 3. ARG, 4. NZL, 5. AUS, 6. FIJ, 7. AUT, 8. CHN, 9. GBR, 10. INA.

FINAL RESULTS AFTER 11 RACES AND 2 DISCARDS: 1. AUT 38 PTS, 2. ARG 43 PTS, 3. NZL 48 PTS, 4. AUS 61 PTS, 5. CHN 64 PTS, 6. GRE 64 PTS, 7. ISR 79 PTS, 8. POL 84 PTS, 9. GER 84 PTS, 10 FIJ 88 PTS.