Saturday featured the medal races for the women’s and men’s windsurfers with the wind blowing 14-16 knots out of the northwest.

So far, four classes have presented medals to their top three finishers. Ten different countries have won at least one medal. The Netherlands and Israel have each won two medals. With six classes still racing, it will be interesting to see how many of the 65 countries competing in sailing will take home hardward. Sailing continues on Sunday with full coverage on Peacock.

In the women’s windsurfing division, Great Britain’s Emma Wilson won 8 of 14 races and placed the the top three in the rest. But Wilson faltered in the final and came away with the bronze medal behind Italy's Marta Maggetti and Sharon Kantor of Israel.

Wilson led at the first two turning marks but ran into trouble near the end of the third leg on a slow tack and came off her foil. Wilson then sailed well past the lay line and lost the lead. Maggetti had split away from the leaders and found more wind on the north side of the racecourse and grabbed the lead. Israel’s Sharon Kantor was now in second place and only about three boat lengths behind Maggetti. At the leeward gate, Maggetti held off Kantor and cruised to the gold medal. A distraught Emma Wilson finished 31 seconds behind the leaders. She was visibly upset after the race but showed smiles and grace at the medal ceremony later in the afternoon. 

RESULTS

The men’s windsurfing races were equally thrilling. American Noah Lyon qualified for the quarterfinals and finished sixth in the race to end his Olympic run. It is unclear whether qualifying for the final early is a gift. The sailors racing in the early heats are able to get tuned up and become familiar with the wind and wave patterns while the finalist sits on the sideline waiting to race. In both the men’s and women’s races the sailor who reached the final by winning the opening series did not win the gold medal. 

Australia’s Grae Morris had a 4.6 average score out of 24 boats. He led at the first turning mark and dropped back to third at the second mark. Amazingly, Morris was able to work out of the hole and rounded the third mark in the lead with Israel’s Tom Reuveny rounding the mark almost simultaneously. Dutch sailer Luuc van Opzeeland placed third, just six seconds behind.  

On the fast run toward the leeward gate, the iQFOiL’s sailed at 27 knots. Reuveny rounded the final gate with a 4-second lead over Morris and 7-second lead over van Opzeeland. It was a thriller as the iQFOiLs crossed the finish line.

Reuvney’s coach, Gal Fridman, won a gold medal for Israel in 2004 in Athens. The coach looked as excited as his protégé at the finish. 

RESULTS

The reigning Olympic champions in the mixed multihull, sailing the Nacra 17, Ruggero Tita, 32, and Caterina Marianna Banti, 37, picked up where they left off in Tokyo with a 1-2-2 series after three races. Americans, Sarah Newberry Moore (36 from Miami, Florida) and David Liebenberg (32 from Richmond, California) are 15th in the standings in the 19-boat fleet with a 10-16-18 series. 

RESULTS

Australia's 28-year-old Matt Wearn, Olympic gold medal winner in the men’s dinghy class in Tokyo, has set a blistering pace with a 12-2-1-1-2 series. Great Britain’s Michael Beckett, 29, stands in second place, 22 points behind Wearn. A total of 43 ILCA 7’s are racing in this Division. 

In third place stands Pavlos Kontides from Cyprus who is in his fifth Olympics. He won a Silver Medal in London 2012.

RESULTS

Dutch 36-year-old sailer Marit Bouwmeester (gold medal in Rio 2016, silver medal in London 2012, bronze medal in Tokyo 2020) leads the women’s dinghy division by 16 points over 33 year-old Dane Anne-Marie Rindom (gold medal Tokyo 2021, bronze medal Rio 2016). Clearly, experience is paying off for these veteran sailors. American Ericka Reinke had a good day on the water with a 3-4-7 and moved up to sixth in the standings, six points out of a podium position. 

The women dinghy sailors have four more races over the next two days before their medal race.

RESULTS

The stakes were high yesterday in the women’s skiff medal race. France had a slim one-point lead over the Netherlands. France fell behind early but made up ground on the home stretch when the Dutch throught they had crossed the finish line but were mistaken about its location. France sailers crossed the line thinking they had won a gold medal and displayed understandable elation. In contrast, the Dutch women were devastated that they blown it on a mental mistake. There were tears and raw emotions. An official photography boat came alongside to inform the Dutch that they had won on the scorecard. Suddenly their mood changed to somewhere between ecstatic and elated. 

Over on the French boat, disappointment. More tears. In fact, though, the French ended up with a bronze medal.

When the sad looking French sailors, Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon, arrived back at the Marseille Marina, their boyfriends were waiting.  But they weren’t there for a few sympathetic hugs, the men kneeled down and made marriage proposals. The bronze medal suddenly took a back seat. It was a happy day for all four.