Australia's reigning Olympic champion Matt Wearn won the gold medal in the men's dinghy division on Wednesday, holding off his Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus, who won silver, his second. Stefano Peschiera from Peru won bronze.

RESULTS

Sailing has a reputation for being a relaxing activity. A sailor is "at one with nature" while enjoying goodwill between shipmates. It is a a nice ideal, until two boats get in close proximity. And then? Then human nature takes over and a race develops. 

Wearn sat atop the leaderboard entering Wednesday's medal race with a comfortable 14-point lead over Kontides. To pass Wearn in the standings, Kontides would have finish first with the Australian ninth. Just as the warning signal sounded three minutes before the start, Wearn aggressively initiated match racing tactics against Kontides to try to keep him away from the starting line. The on-the-water umpires kept a close watch on the maneuvering. At the same time, Kontides was trying to attack Peschiera from Peru who stood ten points behind Kontides. It looked like a three-ring circus with the three ILCA 7 sailboats spinning around each other. Trying to stay out of the fray, Great Britain’s Michael Beckett was working to get a clean start since he still had a chance for a bronze medal standing five points behind Peschiera. 

Got all that?

The fleet started slowly in light 7 knot winds. Beckett was sloppy out of the gate and started rocking his boat to try to accelerate. The umpires immediately issued Beckett a penalty for the infraction. The plot thickened as Hungarian sailor, Jonatan Vadnai took the lead and was momentarily ahead of Peru who was well behind. If that wasn’t enough, Hermann Tomasgaard from Norway passed Vadnai on the second leg and moved into the medal slot. On the same leg, Peru and Great Britain were penalized for rocking and were now well behind. 

Wearn and Kontides, up in the lead, left the others to sort out the scrum in the back of the fleet. Peschiera looked discombobulated. He must have been thinking his bronze medal was slipping away. The Peruvian sailor went to college in the United States and was named College Sailor of the Year in 2018 sailing for the College of Charleston. Peschiera, in ninth place, had to hope that either Vadnai or Tomasgaard would not win the race and gain 16 points. 

What goes on in a competitor’s mind when things are going wrong while you have to keep competing?  

Champions simply focus on the task at hand without contemplating the potential disappointment. It is hard to do, and in this race, the expressions on the faces we could see thanks to the on-board cameras, provided deflating candor. 

Peschiera jibed back and forth desperately searching for a puff of wind. Wearn won the race just one length ahead of Kontides. The gold and silver medals were confirmed. Vadnai crossed the line in third and Tomasgaard was fourth. When Peschiera finished some 45 seconds after the leaders, he looked exhausted and stunned. He didn’t know exactly the order of the early finishers, nor the point score total. It must have been an anxious minute as he waited for word of the result. 

Eventually, a media boat came alongside and informed the 29-year-old sailor that he had earned a bronze medal. His expression slowly turned happy, and then jubilant.

The gold and silver medal positions had been decided at the end of the opening series in the women's dingy division.

Marit Bouwmeester (Netherlands) and Anne-Marie Rindom (Denmark) scored a high enough score to claim their medals. Under Olympic sailing rules, competitors are required to participate in the medal race. There was still a battle for third place on the podium, which was claimed by Norway's Line Flem Host.

RESULTS

In contrast to the men, who battled fiercely during the pre-start sequence, Bouwmeester and Rindom elected to stay away from the two boats that were only five points apart. Hoest and Maud Jayet (Switzerland) were aiming for the bronze medal. Jayet fell behind early and rounded the first mark in seventh place, Hoest in fourth. The race continued in a solid 15-knot winds out of the southwest, but the breeze started to fade as the race continued. 

Hoest passed two boats on the second leg by jibing on a favourable wind shift. At the second mark she was in second place. The wind continued to drop but the race was over in a flash. In fact, Italy’s Ciara Benni Floriani covered the five-leg racecourse in just 14 minutes and 14 seconds. 

The Norwegian sailor finished second in the race to secure her bronze medal. You could see Line’s elation and how much winning a medal meant to her, not to mention the ecstatic Norwegian fans on shore.  

One of the heartwarming moments during the formal medal ceremony is when the gold medal winner invites the runners up to the top step of the stage. During every medal ceremony in Marseille, someone has pulled out a cell phone to take a selfie with three happy faces.

The mixed multihull and mixed dinghy medal races were postponed due to lack of wind and have been rescheduled for Thursday. 

The forecast calls for good wind and we should get to watch some quality racing. In the 470 class, there is quite a battle for silver and bronze between Argentina (41 points), Great Britain (47 points) and New Zealand (47 points). Italy has a 14-point advantage and will stay out of the way of the three combatants trying to win one of the two medals. 

Later in the day, coverage will continue with the men’s and women’s kiteboarding races. All of these races will be covered on Peacock. Just click on "SAILING".