Final day at Qingdao completed

by Sail-World.com/uk on 21 Aug 2008
Final day of the Olympic sailing events at Qingdao, China. Two Medal races to complete the programme, the Tornado and the Star classes, first up were the Tornado.

No medal chance for the British pair, Leigh McMillan and Will Howden but they led the race round every mark to finish their Olympic campaign on a high.

Weather conditions were ideal for the Tornado race, strong wind with a steep sea running. The German boat capsized on the first downwind leg.

The Spanish crew of Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz came off the line fast and rounded the first mark in second and then comfortably protected their Gold medal, crossing the line in fourth and ahead of the Australian's Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby, who took the Silver. Bronze went to Santiago Lange and Carlos Espínola of Argentina.

Next to go - in the final race of the 2008 Olympics - were the Star class.

And this produced one of the great classic Olympic races. With the medals open to at least six of the ten boats it was constantly changing as first the Brazilian, and then the Polish boat led.

In the fleet Percy and Simpson squeezed ahead of Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom down the first run to round second but then dropped to seventh while covering the Swedish boat and with Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada leading it meant the Gold was with the Brazilian pair.

Round the final mark the Poles lead and Scheidt and Prada had dropped to fifth, meaning that Percy and Simpson were back in Gold if they beat the Swedish boat.

Down the final run they separated and as they came into the line Percy and Simpson crossed fifth in a goup of four boats, with Loof and Ekstrom last ten seconds behind and it was Gold to Britain.

Scheidt and Prada of Brazil took the Silver with Loof and Ekstrom dropping to Bronze, tied on points with the Brazilian pair.

Star - Final positions after the Medal Race

1 GBR Iain Percy, Andrew Simpson 10 58 45 pts
2 BRA Robert Scheidt, Bruno Prada 6 64 53 pts
3 SWE Fredrik Loof, Anders Ekstrom 20 68 53 pts

4 POL Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Dominik Zycki 2 72 59 pts
5 SUI Flavio Marazzi, Enrico De Maria 4 70 59 pts
6 FRA Xavier Rohart, Pascal Rambeau 18 81 69 pts
7 GER Marc Pickel, Ingo Borkowski 8 84 70 pts
8 POR Afonso Domingos, Bernardo Santos 12 89 72 pts
9 NZL Hamish Pepper, Carl Williams 14 93 80 pts
10 ITA Diego Negri, Luigi Viale 16 105 92 pts

Tornado - Final positions after the Medal Race

1 ESP Fernando Echavarri, Anton Paz Blanco 8 57 44
2 AUS Darren Bundock, Glenn Ashby 10 58 49
3 ARG Santiago Lange, Carlos Espínola 12 69 56

4 CAN Oskar Johansson, Kevin Stittle 4 76 61
5 NED Mitch Booth, Pim Nieuwenhuis 6 77 64
6 GBR Leigh McMillan, Will Howden 2 82 68
7 ITA Francesco Marcolini, Edoardo Bianchi 16 89 74
8 GER Johannes Polgar, Florian Spalteholz22 87 74
9 AUT Roman Hagara, Hans Peter Steinacher 14 96 82
10 GRE Iordanis Paschalidis, Konstantinos Trigonis 22 95 82