Great Scott: Emotional Brit wins Finn Olympic sailing gold

First, though, Scott has to figure out how to prevail on Guanabara Bay. She finished second and seventh in the two races, elevating her to seventh in the standings. It meant that he had some breathing space over the fleet, but Scott was still ruing an error he had made in the first race. After a pair of top-five results today, she leads Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom, victor of the late race, by a single point for top spot in the overall standings.

The men’s Finn single-man dinghy fleet will race for the third-straight afternoon, while men’s and women’s RS:X windsurfing, men’s and women’s 470 two-person dinghy, and mixed Nacra 17 two-person catamarans all return to Marina da Glória.

The last guy who won the Olympic gold medal in sailing’s Finn class was knighted by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace a few months after the London Olympics.

“Rio was quite kind to us on the outside courses”.

“The Finns are a very technical class it’s very tactical and also very physical so I think if you get races that hit all those areas it’s only good for the sailors”.

He added: “There is still an awfully long way to go and the racing in Rio is particularly tough, it is going to throw all sorts at us so we really just have to be mindful of that and prepare as much as possible”. But I still managed to get up there, nearly in first but rounded in third. I found myself with only a handful of boats behind me at that first mark, which was pretty frustrating. “But clearly having that margin is a good place to me”.

And most tellingly every sailor now occupying a top 10 position is already discarding a score of 10th or higher with six races still to go, meaning there is virtually no margin for error for the remainder of the regatta for any sailor.

Five-time Olympic medalist and Brazilian sailing legend Robert Scheidt somewhat steadied his inconstant start to the men’s Laser opening series with 11th-place and second-place finishes today.

Both the women and men’s 470 classes were scheduled for three races but could only fit in two as the weather eventually squeezed them out. Britain’s Nick Dempsey went 1-4-14 to keep the lead, but it’s by only one point over defending gold medalist Dorian van Rijsselberghe of the Netherlands, who went 4-1-1. One net point separates Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini and France’s Charline Picon.