There was heartbreak for the British medal hopefuls John Gimson and Anna Burnet, who were disqualified for being over at the start of the double points medal race in the mixed multihull boats. They appeared not to realise and did not go back to re-cross the line, with officials breaking the news mid-race.
Burnet was clearly distraught after realising the dream of another Olympic medal with Gimson had been dashed. The British pair, who are due to get married next month, had been well placed to win silver or bronze going into the final race but, without being able to complete it, finished fourth and off the podium.
Nonetheless they welcomed the gold medal-winning Italians Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti ashore, hugging the defending Olympic champions on the beach as the celebrations began for Italy, who have now won their second sailing medal of the Games.
Tita and Banti had sailed an assured final medal race to finish second and confirm their overall win. Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco of Argentina were able to hold off a medal challenge by Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson of New Zealand to secure silver, with the New Zealanders settling for bronze in a closely contested light wind contest.
Celebrations on the water included songs from the Argentinians as they waved their blue and white flag wildly.
Earlier, Austria’s Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr did enough in their medal race to clinch gold in the mixed dinghy after fighting their way up from the back of the fleet.
After a brief pause while they waited for the points tally to be confirmed by officials, the Austrian duo celebrated in the traditional way by capsizing their 470 dinghy and standing on its upturned white hull, waving their country’s flag.
Japan’s Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka stayed near the front of the pack throughout in the double-points finale to secure silver, while Anton Dahlberg and Lovisa Karlsson of Sweden picked up bronze, with Spain’s Jordi Xammar Hernández and Nora Brugman pushed back into fourth overall.
after newsletter promotion
Although the French duo of Camille Lecointre and Jeremie Mion won the medal race, it was not enough for the locals to get into the medals, leaving them in sixth place overall.
