On the face of it it appeared the 12-month delay to the Tokyo Games might have taken some of the fire out of Team GBR, along with the distraction for sailors like Giles Scott (opposite) of the America’s Cup. Or was it that with so few events in the past 18 months Olympic sailing itself had slipped from view, with no big wins to remind us how formidable British sailors are on the Olympic stage? Nor were doubts assuaged by the less than usually stellar performances from Scott and the 470 pairing of Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre (left). But there is a long tradition of British Olympic sailors spending these last pre-Olympic months focusing on checking gear and set-ups before peaking exactly when it matters. Sure enough… Scott, Mills, McIntyre and several other UK crews absolutely smashed it in Japan
any modern Olympic Regatta. The gybe was surreal and will be replayed by sailing coaches around the world for years to come – in very little breeze Bithell’s chute pulling hard on the new side well before Fletcher had finished rotating the boat. Heil and Ploessel’s second was enough
to take bronze from Spain, and it was the boat Britain needed to beat the unbeatables from New Zealand. Fletcher and Bithell looked like they were having fun from start to finish of this high-pressure regatta. And that mindset was one of the big reasons why they ended up winning. Finn Giles Scott (GBR) told himself the
bias, my sentimental favourites for a medal were Robert Scheidt (BRA) and Pavlos Kontides (CYP). Both came close but didn’t quite manage it; and congratula- tions to the very likeable Hermann Tomas- gaard, taking bronze for Norway. Laser Radial Women If Anne-Marie
Rindom (DEN) hadn’t ended up winning the gold medal after such a dominant regatta she would never have got over it. A moment of madness in the last qualifying race before the Medal Race saw her nearly give it all away, but in the end the great Dane got the gold she deserved. Josefin Olsson (SWE) quietly worked her way up to silver, relegat- ing the defending Olympic champion Marit Bouwmeester (NED) to a bronze medal that most sailors would be only too happy to win, but which for Marit the perfectionist was not what she had come to Tokyo for. 49erFX Women This was a Medal Race
where any one of seven teams could have reached the podium. Annemiek Bekkering and Annette Duetz (NED) started on pole but in the end were lucky to hold onto anything at all, just squeaking a bronze medal. For Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke (GER) a silver medal at their first Games was a redemption story for a team who have been sailing together since 2007 and have twice narrowly and controversially missed Olympic selection for Germany. As for Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA), they were playing catch-up all week after a messy start to the competition. For sheer force of will, grit and determination,
no one does it better than these Brazilians. When they really need to win they seem to find a way. That strength and brilliance run through the veins of all of the delight- ful Grael family is beyond doubt. 49er Men One of the greatest Olympic
races of all time. Six 49er world titles, a silver and gold from the last two Games, two America’s Cup victories: no wonder the rest of the 49er fleet have struggled to overcome the aura of invincibility that has surrounded Pete Burling and Blair Tuke for eight years. Sure enough, after a slow start the Kiwis had worked their way into the yellow bibs by the Medal Race, but this time only by a few points. Great Britain and Spain started on equal points and to win the gold medal would not only need to beat each other but also put a boat between themselves and New Zealand. While Diego Botín and Iago López Marra
(ESP) never really worked themselves into the story, Dylan Fletcher and Stu Bithell (GBR) took the bull by the horns and won the first cross against the Kiwis from oppo- site sides of the first upwind leg. Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel (GER) were working hard for their own bid for the podium. The three-way battle at the front of the fleet was heart-in-mouth skiff action in slo-mo. The British on port, then executing the
most perfect gybe you have ever seen in the final metres to narrowly fend off starboard gybe Germany at the finish, winning by a single second, was one of the defining moments of the Olympic Games. Indeed of
one thing he couldn’t afford to do was cross the startline too soon. He started too soon. At least, he thought he had. ‘I went back because I thought I might be over the line too early [he wasn’t] and I wasn’t sure. It was the one thing I told myself I couldn’t afford to do, but somehow that’s what I end up doing. But I think that’s what the occasion does to you.’ I’m not sure anything will ever top the
wacky last 60 seconds of the Finn Medal Race at London 2012 when somehow Ben Ainslie wriggled his way through to clinch an unlikely gold. But Giles Scott’s last-gasp dash for the line in Tokyo came pretty close for heart-in-mouth drama. Zsombor Berecz (HU) not only won the Medal Race, he won the last ever Olympic race to be contested by the Finn dinghy – part of the Games since Helsinki 1952. If the Games had taken place on time a
year earlier chances are Joan Cardona wouldn’t have been there. Such has been his rapid rise the 23-year-old Spaniard looked very comfortable in podium posi- tion all week. Where this was most likely the last Games for Scott and Berecz in their 30s, for Cardona this bronze medal will be hard to follow now the Finn is gone. Nacra 17 Unlike the defining moment
of the Rio 2016 Games when Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli won that emotional gold for Argentina on the final leg, the Nacra 17 Medal Race in Tokyo was mostly a foregone conclusion. An easy gold for Ruggero Tita and
Caterina Banti (ITA) was just reward for a well-run campaign coached by Gabriele Bruni, brother of Francesco. Same for John
SEAHORSE 59
SAILING ENERGY
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