WEYMOUTH, England (Reuters) – An era of British sailing dominance came to an end on home waters at the London Olympics as Australia stole the host nation’s crown, winning three of the 10 golds up for grabs.
Sailing, which lives in fear of being dropped from the Games because of the costs and the perception that it is not a spectator friendly sport, had all to play for at Weymouth and Portland.
It did not disappoint.
Spectators witnessed thrills, spills and some disappointments with only Finn sailor Ben Ainslie able to deliver gold for the pre-Games favorites Team GB.
Ainslie’s medal came by the slimmest of margins as the 35-year-old’s gritty determination and guile helped him become the most successful Olympic sailor ever with four golds and a silver in five Games.
His duel with Jonas Hogh-Christensen for the Finn title – held for more than half a century by the Dane’s compatriot Paul Elvstrom – was the most acrimonious of an otherwise largely uncontroversial regatta.
Early concerns about the 10 gold medals being decided in a final race after a series of 10 proved unfounded and the format rewarded spectators with some thrilling racing.
Highlights included the Swedish duo of Fredrik Loof and Max Salminen snatching victory from Britain’s reigning champions Iain Percy and Andrew “Bart” Simpson in the Star class with a superb final sail.
The “Nothe” medal course, close to the shore to provide a perfect spectacle for the paying public, presented one of the trickiest stretches of water even the most experienced Olympic sailors had navigated, with at times flukey winds making for some unexpected results.
The U.S. failed to win a single medal for the first time since 1936 as the squad continued the process of changing the way it trains to replicate the British model.
The spoils were shared among 15 nations with Cyprus celebrating its first Olympic medal in any sport for Pavlos Kontides, who won silver in the Laser single-handed class behind a dominant Tom Slingsby of Australia.
Australia’s three golds and a silver relegated Britain to third with one gold and four silvers behind Spain, whose women take home two golds in the windsurfing and the match racing.
The Netherlands won a gold in men’s windsurfing and the other golds were won by Sweden in the Star, China in the women’s Laser Radial and New Zealand in the women’s two-handed 470.
Several Olympic veterans will not be making the voyage to Rio de Janeiro and some of the boats were raced for the last time in an Olympic championship.
The Star, designed in 1910, and the largest and heaviest of the classes is being decommissioned, unless bronze medalists Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada of Brazil can persuade the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) to grant the keelboat a reprieve.
Another change at the Brazilian Olympic sailing venue of Guanabara Bay in 2016 will be the introduction of kitesurfing, which takes over from windsurfing.
The decision has been challenged by the windsurfing class association, but gold medalist Dorian Van Rijsselberge of the Netherlands and silver medalist Nick Dempsey of Britain have already said they are switching to kiteboarding.
“Mixed doubles” will also feature, closing the gender gap, with the inclusion of the multi-hull two person Nacra 17 class.
While on-board cameras made for some great action TV footage, they were not universally popular among the sailors, with some complaining they got in the way.
Despite this, there have been calls for more technology to help umpires and juries, with some suggesting the use of video for starts and finishes in 2016.
“The sport is advancing probably faster than the umpires and technology involved,” Ian Ainslie, chief coach of the Dutch team, told Reuters.
“You see them having to make a call on a split second incident which could change the nature of the result totally.”
(Editing by Alexander Smith and Nick Mulvenney)
