Marseille, France – After taking bronze in the Laser Radial in Tokyo, the Dutch superstar returned to the top of the pecking order with a dominant display in Marseille to all but secure gold, after having achieved the same feat in Rio.
Bouwmeester will become a four-time Olympic medallist tomorrow and looked the part throughout, finishing in the top five on seven different occasions. She did have her weakest finish in race nine, placing 20th, but that mattered very little as the final race of the Opening Series was abandoned due to a lack of wind, confirming that Bouwmeester could not be overtaken at the top of the rankings.
Marit Bouwmeester is on course to win gold in the Women’s Dinghy which means tomorrow she will become the most successful female sailor at an Olympic Games.
Anne-Marie Rindom, the gold medallist in Tokyo, was unable to defend her crown but still put in a fine showing on the water. She has all but secured the silver medal after finishing fourth in the first and only race of the day. Rindom also won bronze in Rio, meaning tomorrow she will complete the Olympic medal set.
Bronze is still up for grabs heading into the Medal Race tomorrow, but at the moment, Norway’s Line Flem Hoest is third, five points ahead of Switzerland’s Maud Jayet who struggled on the water today.
Bouwmeester said: “What a tough day, we were so close to the island. It was a crazy day. I think I had a really tough Worlds and I struggled to find balance with the home situation and sailing. I’ve been building since then.
“I’ve been sailing in very slow boats so I think that’s why my sailing looked less before. I knew that hopefully I could get a bit more pace here, so I was actually hoping for this to happen.
“I’m just going to enjoy this one, I’m going to go back to my family and rest. I must say a big thank you to my family for supporting me.”
Rindom said: “I felt like I underperformed a little bit this week. With that in mind I still secured a silver medal. I would have liked to have battled it out with Marit tomorrow, but it’s ok. She had a really good week and hats off, she definitely did the job that needed to be done.”
“It’s really difficult to perform at an Olympic Games and really hard to perform in these conditions. I had an injury for the last three months, and that sent me off a little bit. I don’t think I lived up to my level until today, but that’s sport.
“I knew that it could go either way, so I had to keep fighting and believing in myself.”
Men’s Dinghy:
The standings in the Men’s Dinghy did not change as all racing was abandoned due to light wind. That meant Australia’s Matt Wearn is guaranteed either a silver or gold when he lines up in the Medal Race tomorrow.
Pavlos Kontides is the only sailor who can overtake him, but the Cypriot is not guaranteed a medal, so he will have to delicately maneuver the race tomorrow if he is to reach the podium. Meanwhile, Peru’s Stefano Peschiera remains third, ten points adrift of Kontides.
By Andy Rice: A SILVER-COATED CONUNDRUM FOR KONTIDES
Currently in the silver medal position, Pavlos Kontides (CYP) is very aware of the strange situation that he finds himself in. Such is Australian Matt Wearn’s lead, the defending Olympic Champion is already certain of a silver medal in the Men’s Dinghy and looking very likely to bag another gold. “I’m in a bit of a tricky spot because Matt Wearn can only lose to me and so I will expect a match race from him,” said the London 2012 Olympic silver medallist from Cyprus. A match is a boat-on-boat duel, which we’ve seen before to resolve Olympic medals in the Olympic dinghy. “If Matt manages to drag us both of us back [down the fleet], this opens the opportunity for Peru and GBR to attack. And even though I have a nice buffer of points it’s a tricky situation to be in. So my job is to try and escape from the match race and sail against the others and finish as far forward as possible.”
At his first Olympic Regatta all the way back in Beijing 2008, Kontides missed the 10-boat Medal Race because he was a young and inexperienced teenager and finished 13th. But he was there in Qingdao to witness the Medal Race as British sailor Paul Goodison set about match racing Sweden’s Rasmus Myrgren all the way down the fleet.
This was because Myrgren was the only sailor remaining who had a mathematical chance of taking gold away from the Briton. Even though Myrgren would have to win the Medal Race and Goodison finish last, the British sailor was not prepared to leave anything to chance. Goodison executed his plan from before the start and did such a good job of holding the Swede back that he knocked Myrgren out of the medals altogether.
Currently sitting in silver medal position and sitting 10 points ahead of Peru’s Stefano Peschiera, Kontides is philosophical about being at such a disadvantage. He does, after all, still have a theoretical shot at the gold medal. “It’s sailing so you never know what could happen,” he concluded with a wry smile.
Wearn, who has had little to say this week, when asked whether or not he’d be going for the match race, said: “Haven’t made my mind up yet.”
How it works:
Medals for the Women’s and Men’s Dinghy (ILCA 6 and ILCA 7) will be decided by the cumulative results of the 40-strong fleet over 10 races. The boat with the lowest total will rank first. Athletes will be able to discard their worst finishing position after they’ve completed three races.
At the end of the Opening Series, the top ten boats in the fleet will qualify for the Medal Race, which is worth double points. The score in the Medal Race cannot be discarded. The sailor with the smallest overall points total will win gold.
This article was edited by ILCA with content provided by World Sailing, published initially on paris2024.sailing.org