Athens 2004 - Day 12
by Sacha Oswald, RYA 25 Aug 2004 14:05 PDT
Nick Dempsey wins bronze in the men's windsurfing class at the Athens 2004 Olympic regatta © Richard Langdon
Dempsey pulls it out the bag to win bronze
Great Britain’s Nick Dempsey has won the first ever Olympic medal for British windsurfing. Since the inception of windsurfing in the Olympics at Los Angles in 1984, no British windsurfer has finished on the podium, but today that changed, and a further bronze medal takes Britain’s sailing medal tally up to five.
Dempsey had the seemingly insurmountable task of having to make up ten places on the Greek sailor, and local hero, Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, to move up from fourth place to clinch a medal in the final race of the Olympic regatta.
A determined Dempsey rounded the first mark in the lead and managed to keep hold of it until the finish. Dempsey had done all he possibly could for a podium position and he now had to wait and watch to see where his rivals finished.
To Dempsey’s disappointment the Greek had caught up from seventeenth to tenth on the last leg and Dempsey hung is head low, thinking the medal has slipped through his fingers, he didn’t even stay on the course to watch the final finishers. It was not until he was back on land where he was greeted by a jubilant support team with news that the Brazilian, Ricardo Santos, had a disastrous last leg and had dropped from ninth to seventeenth, which meant Dempsey had secured bronze, leaving the Brazilian with fourth. Winning the gold medal was Gal Fridman, the first ever Olympic gold medal for Israel on the water.
Dempsey commented, “It is the first time in four years that I have felt a sense of achievement, I have done everything I could and it is not just about winning a medal but the sense of achievement in the fact that I have prepared as well as I have and could not have done more. I think that is one thing that I got from Sarah [Ayton], the hours and focus that she has put into her campaign has inspired me. She also gave me her lucky horseshoe that her Granddad polished, and I think that is what did it for me today.”
Nicks fiancé (and gold medal winner in the Yngling class) Sarah Ayton added, “I am thrilled for him, and the fact that he won his last race is fantastic as you always remember your last race. I am really pleased that he sailed so well, and I think it was definitely the lucky horseshoe that helped. I just told him to go out there, sail his best and pray!”
Despite not being able to win a medal today, Natasha Sturges sailed another consistent race to stay inside the top ten at her first Olympic Games. She finished ninth in her last race and ninth overall. Winner of the women’s Mistral class was Faustine Merret of France.
Elsewhere on the race course Leigh McMillan and Mark Bulkeley posted their best result of the regatta finishing the day with a third, nearly two minutes in front of Australia in fourth. A solid eighth in race seven lifts them to thirteenth place overall.
In the Star class a further two races were sailed, and after a slightly disappointing first race result, where they finished sixteenth, the GB team of Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell bounced back to produce a fifth in the second race of the day, which moved them up one place to sixth overall, and just four points off a bronze medal. Double Olympic medallist Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira of Brazil are currently leading the class.
Tomorrow will see the final day of racing for the 49er fleet. After fifteen races and two discards, Chris Draper and Olympic silver medallist Simon Hiscocks have secured a medal, and are currently lying in third place, but will need to sail the final race of the series to determine what colour medal they will be wearing around their necks when they leave Athens. The Star and Tornado classes will also be back out on the Saronic Gulf tomorrow.
Including a guaranteed medal in the 49er class, Great Britain has become the most successful sailing nation in Athens 2004 and Great Britain’s most successful sport at the Athens Olympics to date.
Results after day 11:
Mistral Women
1, Faustine Merret FRA (2,(13),1,4,2,4,4,5,4,3,2) 31 pts GOLD
2, Yin Jian, CHN ((11),6,2,6,4,1,1,1,2,9,1) 33 pts SILVER
3 , Alessandra Sensini, ITA ((7),1,6,3,1,2,3,6,3,2,7) 34 pts BRONZE
GBR
9, Natasha Sturges ((16),10,3,9,9,15,12,11,15,11,9) 103 pts
Mistral Men
1, Gal Fridman, ISR ((8),3,5,5,1,7,5,1,8,5,2) 42 pts GOLD
2, Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, GRE (1,4,4,(14),6,13,2,3,5,4,10) 52 pts SILVER
3, Nick Dempsey, GBR (2,11,(15),10,2,9,1,10,1,6,1) 53 pts BRONZE
Star
1, Torben Grael/Marcelo Ferreira, BRA (5,4,1,1,2,5,2,(7)) 20 pts
2, Ross MacDonald/Mike Wolfs, CAN (7,11,4,3,1,5.2/RDG,8,(14)) 39.2 pts
3, Paul Cayard/Phil Trinter, USA (1,6,(15),10,3,6,1,15) 42 pts
GBR
6, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell (8,3,12,9,6,3,(16),5) 46 pts
Tornado
1, Roman Hagara/Hans Peter Steinacher, AUT (1,3,8,1(14),8,4,1) 26 pts
2, Charlie Ogletree/John Lovell, USA (2,2,1,6,(9),9,6,7) 33 pts
3, Darren Bundock/John Forbes, AUS (9,7,(12),11,1,2,3,4) 37 pts
GBR
13, Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley (8,14,(17),12,7,14,8,3) 66 pts
49er
1, Iker Martinez/Xavier Fernandez, ESP (3,11,7,5,1,(12),2,6,(12),1,8,2,8,2,4) 60 pts
2, Rodion Luka/George Leonchuck, UKR (4,(15),3,7,2,(10),7,5,9,5,3,10,6,5,3) 69 pts
3, Chris Draper/Simon Hiscocks, GBR (8,5,6,3,10,8,1,(13),(11),8,2,4,1,9,6) 71 pts
Laser
1, Robert Scheidt, BRA (3,8,1,3,8,4,(19),12,7,3,6) 55 pts GOLD
2, Andreas Geritzer, AUT (4,1,(34),7,1,2,12,15,12,4,10) 68 pts SILVER
3, Vasilij Zbogar, SLO ((21),13,3,8,4,1,14,1,14,5,13) 76 pts BRONZE
GBR
4, Paul Goodison (13,3,(28),5,11,7,1,9,8,7,17) 81 pts
Europe
1, Siren Sundby, NOR (1,3,(DSQ),1,19,4,4,1,1,1, 12) 47 pts GOLD
2, Lenka Smidova, CZE (10,13,1,13,1,(26),1,6,3,7,10) 65 pts SILVER
3, Signe Livbjerg, DEN (4,6,7,15,8,6,10,3,11,4,(25)) 74 pts BRONZE
GBR
22, Laura Baldwin (21,14,9,23,20,22,(25),22,23,21,4) 178 pts
Yngling
1, Shirley Robertson/Sarah Ayton/Sarah Webb, GBR (5,4,1,1,4,3,4,6,3,8,(DNC)) 39 pts GOLD
2, Ruslana Taran/Ganna Kalinina/Svitlana Matevusheva, UKR (10,3,9,3,7,2,2,9,1,(16),5) 50 pts SILVER
3, Dorte O. Jensen/Helle Jespersen/Christina Otzen, DEN (1,14,5,5,5,6,3,4,6,5,(OCS)) 54 pts BRONZE
Finn
1, Ben Ainslie, GBR (9,(DSQ),1,1,4,1,2,3,2,1,14) 38 pts GOLD
2, Rafael Trujillo, ESP (8,3,3,6,2,3,(OCS),4,5,2,13) 51 pts SILVER
3, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, POL (3,1,6,4,11,(OCS),17,1,7,4,1) 53 pts BRONZE
470 Men
1, Paul Foerster/Kevin Burnham, USA (1,8,2,15,9,4,3,7,18,4,(22)) 71 pts GOLD
2, Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield, GBR (2,3,9,4,18,5,2,3,10,19,(23)) 74 pts SILVER
3, Kazuto Seki/Kenjiro Todoroki, JPN (3,7,(21),18,7,12,1,9,2,3,11) 90 pts BRONZE
470 Women
1, Sofia Bekatorou/Aimilia Tsoulfa, GRE (1,2,2,13,1,1,14,1,1,2,(21)) 38 pts GOLD
2, Natalia Via-Dufresne/Sandra Azon ESP (2,4,9,15,(19),5,8,3,5,6,5) 62 pts SILVER
3, Therese Torgersson/Vendela Zachrisson SWE (9,10,7,2,3,(14),9,6,7,7,3) 63 pts BRONZE
GBR
7, Christina Bassadone/Katherine Hopson (5,14,15,4,5,6,17,(21),2,16,7) 91 pts
You can follow the racing online at www.gbrsailing.org.uk where you will get live updates from the dinghy park and the results as they come in, as well as all the gossip from the Team GB camp. You can also leave messages of support for the team and your comments on the racing.