Top: The Spanish pairing of Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz Blanco took Gold in the Tornado (multihull) class.
Middle and Bottom: Britain's Iain Percy and Andrew (Bart) Simpson's downwind speed earnt them Gold in the Star class in Qingdao.
Images copyright protected Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image
SailRaceWin is grateful to Juerg Kaufmann and Go4Image for exclusive provision of images of the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta.
by Jodie Bakewell-White, with additional material from SailRaceWin
The 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta has concluded today with the Star class medal race – New Zealand’s Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams have finished 9th.
Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams, seen here sailing against the Swiss team of Flavio Marazzi and Enrico De Maria in the medal race, were second at the first mark, but finished seventh in the race and ninth overall in the Star class in Qingdao. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image
With the wrap up of the Star medal race, sailed in gusty winds, rain and big waves off Qingdao, all eleven Olympic champions have now been decided.
New Zealand’s Final Results
GOLD - Tom Ashley, Men’s RS:X
5th - Andrew Murdoch, Laser
6th - Barbara Kendall, Women’s RS:X
7th - Jo Aleh, Laser Radial
9th - Hamish Pepper & Carl Williams, Star
11th - Carl Evans & Peter Burling, Men’s 470
12th - Dan Slater, Finn
New Zealand’s top performance was far and away the gold medal from RS:X windsurfer Tom Ashley, who since his winning race yesterday has been busy fulfilling media commitments.
New Zealand’s most recent Olympic gold medallist had this to say after yesterday’s conclusion to the Men’s RS:X event:
“I’ve done it! It’s the most incredible feeling and I can’t begin to tell you how I feel right now.
“I’ve been working toward this for so many years. It was an insanely tough medal race.”
“The weather had a little bit of everything. I tried to sail as consistently as I could.”
The New Zealand team in Qingdao is extremely proud of the new Olympic champion.
“Tom you’re a legend!! An impressive effort to finally stand on top of the podium!” team-mate Carl William’s commented yesterday: “A true professional with one goal in mind: being the best!”
Another four Kiwi crews had top ten showings with Andrew Murdoch, New Zealand’s second best result at the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta. While Murdoch was disappointed to not return a sailing medal at this Games for his country, 5th place in the hard fought 43 strong Laser fleet is no mean feat.
Pepper and Williams upwind in the Star at Qingdao. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image
In today’s Star class medal race Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams came home in 7th place which means their overall result is 9th place. Today’s race sailed on course A in rainy, blustery conditions was quite a spectacle for the crowd, on the harbour wall, who came out to watch despite the weather.
See Carl Williams' blog for his view of the Star medal race.
The battle for the gold medal went the way of Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson of Great Britain, who were lying 2nd going into the medal race. Robert Scheidt of Brazil got up to claim the silver edging out Fredrik Loof of Sweden on count back, who went into today’s race with the lead and came away with the bronze medal.
The international jury, Chaired by John Doerr, confirmed the Silver and Bronze medal placings in the Star class after an examination of the place recordings at the finish from both ends of the line, helicopter and on-the-water video of the finish, and the Omega GPS boat tracks. Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom (Sweden) finished just one second behind Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau (France). As a result the Swedish team finished on equal points with the Brazilian team (Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada), but their 10th place in the medal race saw the pre-medal race class leaders take Bronze, rather than Silver, medal in Qingdao.
STAR Final Results (top five)
GOLD GBR Iain Percy & Andrew Simpson
SILVER BRA Robert Scheidt & Bruno Prada
BRONZE SWE Fredrik Loof & Anders Ekstrom
4th POL Mateusz Kusznierewicz & Dominik Zycki
5th SUI Flavio Marazzi & Enrico De Maria
9th NZL Hamish Pepper & Carl Williams
Marc Pickel and Ingo Borkowski from Germany, featured earlier on SailRaceWin, finished seventh overall in the Star class in Qingdao. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image
MEN’S RS:X Final Results (top five)
GOLD NZL Tom Ashley
SILVER FRA Julien Bontemps
BRONZE ISR Shahar Zubari
4th GBR Nick Dempsey
5th BRA Ricardo Santos
WOMEN’S RS:X Final Results (top six)
GOLD CHN Jian Yin
SILVER ITA Alessandra Sensini
BRONZE GBR Bryony Shaw
4th ESP Marina Alabau
5th AUS Jessica Crisp
6th NZL Barbara Kendall
Qingdao marked the last appearance at the Olympic Games for the multihulls. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann, Go4Image
ISAF Olympic website results Clicking on a race gives more information on weather, course and mark rounding positions.
Yachting New Zealand
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