Gold for Goodison - No 3 for Britain

by Sail-world.com/uk on 19 Aug 2008
Paul Goodison won Gold in the Laser event at Qingdao - the third sailing Gold of the Beijing Games for Britain.

It was no more 'mister nice guy' time for Paul Goodison today in Qingdao. Taking his cue from the success of Ben Ainslie and the Yngling sailors, Goodison ruthlessly sailed Rasmus Myrgren of Sweden out of any opportunity of spoiling his chances of a Gold medal.

Myrgren started the day in Silver medal position and could have won Gold if he won the race and Goodison finished last. Taking no chances on that happening, Goodison took the Swedish sailor to the back of the fleet and out of any medal position.

Goodison takes a Gold medal after finishing fourth in this event at the last Games. Second was Vasilij Zbogar (SLO) and third Diego Romero (ITA).

Speaking immediately after the race, Goodison said: 'It’s just absolutely amazing, it might not have been the best way to do it but with the conditions being so tricky, it was the best way of making sure of gold.

'It’s been a testing week but I hung in there and delivered yesterday, which made it a bit easier today.

'You come to every Olympic Games trying to do your best and fortunately this time I’m on top of the table. It just feels unbelievable and it’s going to take a while to sink in, it’s just amazing. With London 2012 just around the corner, it would be an amazing opportunity to represent Great Britain at an Olympic Games in Britain.'

Laser - Final overall positions after the Medal Race

1 GBR Paul Goodison 18 78 63 pts
2 SLO Vasilij Zbogar 4 95 71 pts
3 ITA Diego Romero 6 111 75 pts

4 POR Gustavo Lima 10 103 76 pts
5 NZL Andrew Murdoch 2 121 81 pts
6 SWE Rasmus Myrgren 20 105 83 pts
7 ARG Julio Alsogaray 8 123 92 pts
8 FRA Jean Baptiste Bernaz 12 138 104 pts
9 CAN Michael Leigh 14 137 109 pts
10 NOR Kristian Ruth 16 147 109 pts
11 RUS Igor Lisovenko 133 96 pts
12 CRO Luka Radelic 127 101 pts
13 CYP Pavlos Kontides 148 113 pts
14 ESP Javier Hernández 165 121 pts
15 GRE Evangelos Chimonas 174 130 pts
16 POL Maciej Grabowski 163 131 pts
17 URU Alejandro Foglia 169 133 pts
18 TUR Kemal Muslubas 188 146 pts
19 AUT Andreas Geritzer 201 157 pts
20 CHN Sheng Shen 199 159 pts
21 ISV Thomas Barrows, III 195 164 pts
22 AUS Tom Slingsby 204 164 pts
23 DEN Anders Nyholm 208 164 pts
24 EST Deniss Karpak 207 166 pts
25 USA Andrew Campbell 218 174 pts
26 CHI Matias Del Solar 214 180 pts
27 BRA Bruno Fontes 223 184 pts
28 KOR Jeemin Ha 227 190 pts
29 HUN Zsombor Berecz 232 195 pts
30 FIN Pierre Angelo Collura 239 198 pts
31 CZE Martin Trcka 246 202 pts
32 SEY Allan Julie 240 203 pts
33 GUA Juan Maegli 250 206 pts
34 NED Rutger van Schaardenburg 253 215 pts
35 JPN Yoichi Iijima 279 235 pts
36 SIN Seng Leong Koh 283 239 pts
37 SUI Christoph Bottoni 285 241 pts
38 MAS Kevin Lim 293 249 pts
39 VEN Jose Miguel Ruiz 289 249 pts
40 DOM Raul Aguayo 296 258 pts
41 LUX Marc Schmit 308 267 pts
42 UAE Mohammad Adil Khalid 315 272 pts
43 BAR Gregory Douglas 342 299 pts