Two generations of sailors shared the Olympic regatta spotlight yesterday when Britain’s Ben Ainslie won the Finn gold and Americans Paul Foerster and Kevin Burnham reached the pinnacle after years of trying.
Ainslie tasted the Saronic Gulf’s salty water when he was capsized by his main rivals after securing the gold, but was all smiles as the Finn title followed his success in the lighter Laser dinghy in Sydney four years ago.
“A gold medal is an amazing feeling.... I’m so happy,” said the 27-year-old Ainslie, who also won silver as a teenager in Atlanta in 1996.
“Day one was a bit of a disaster and to come back and win a gold after that was just unbelievable,” he said, referring to his opening day disqualification in race two.
Afterward he sailed like a man possessed and knowing that he had little margin for error, Ainslie won four times, twice took second place and recorded two other top five finishes in his series.
Ainslie has proved matchless in the Finn and the triple world champion needed to keep only his nerve in the final race of 11 to beat off silver medalist Rafael Trujillo from Spain and Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierewicz.
His triumph sealed Britain’s second sailing gold of the Athens Games, well on the way to matching their three from Sydney where the island nation ruled the waves.
Burnham, oldest competitor in the men’s 470 fleet at the age of 47, and Foerster, 40, defied their years to triumph in the men’s double-handed dinghy.
Foerster and Burnham edged out Britain’s Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield by just three points in the 470.
Ignoring the rest of the fleet, the two crews fought their own battle, with the older Americans able to keep their rivals in check throughout after they had blundered at the start.
“It’s an honor to be a champion, it’s something I have wanted all my life,” said Burnham, who won silver in 1992 in Barcelona with Morgan Reeser.
“I’ve competed in three Olympics and I have dreamed about winning gold since I started sailing the 470 in 1975.”
Foerster had won silver twice before - with crew member Robert Merrick in Sydney and in the Flying Dutchman class eight years earlier.
Silver was at least consolation for the British crew, who missed out on a medal four years ago by one point after losing their position in the final minutes of the final race.
With the gold medals already decided in the Yngling and women’s 470, yesterday’s finale in both classes was a battle for silver and bronze.
Ukraine trio Ruslana Taran, Ganna Kalinina and Svitlana Matevusheva secured the Yngling silver after a false start by Danish crew Dorte Jensen, Helle Jespersen and Christina Otzen put them third.
In the 470, Spain’s Natalia Via Dufresne and Sandra Azon took silver by a single point from Sweden’s Therese Torgersson and Vendela Zachrisson.
Champions Sofia Bekatorou and Aimilia Tsoulfa from Greece did not sail after winning the gold with a race to spare.
Korean Men Take Gold in Teams Final
Defending champions South Korea won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s archery team competition yesterday after comfortably beating Taiwan in the final, giving their country three of the four archery titles.
In a 27-arrow final shot played out in searing heat, the Koreans fired 12 bull-s’eyes for maximum 10-point scores to win the shootout 251-245.
Ukraine took the bronze medal after beating the United States 237-235 in the third place match at the Panathinaiko Stadium, the marble home of the first modern Games in 1896. The record-breaking trio of Koreans — Park Kyung-mo, Im Dong-hyun, Jang Yong-ho — failed to live up to their reputations in the individual competition and crashed out before the semi-finals, but they showed their class as a team.
Korea has no Olympic peer in archery. Since first competing at the Games in 1984, they have won 14 golds. Korean men have won three golds in the teams competition.
China beat HK for Second Gold
Top seeds Chen Qi and partner Ma Lin beat Ko Lai-chak and Li Ching of Hong Kong 4-2 on Saturday to take the men’s doubles gold medal in table tennis and keep China on track for another Olympic title sweep in Athens.
The Chinese duo from, with boisterous support from a large Chinese crowd, overcame a mid-match comeback by the third seeds to win 11-6, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-5.
Ko and Li’s silver is Hong Kong’s first medal at Athens.
Earlier, Denmark’s Michael Maze and Finn Tugwell beat Russians Dmitri Mazunov and Alexei Smirnov 4-2 for the bronze. The 16th-seeded Danes won 11-3 11-8 12-14 3-11 11-9 11-8.
After the final, Hong Kong’s Ko said: “We rose above our normal level.” On Friday, China’s Wang Nan took her third Olympic gold, teaming up with Zhang Yining to sweep Lee Eun-sil and Seok Eun-mi of South Korea 4-0 in the women’s doubles. Zhang, the world No. 1, will face North Korea’s Kim Hyang-mi in the women’s final today. World No. 1 Wang Liqin and Chinese compatriot Wang Hao will meet in the men’s semifinals today. In the other semifinal, South Korea’s Ryu Seung-min will face 1992 Olympic champion Jan-Ove Waldner of Sweden, who took silver in Sydney.
Nikitin Wins Men’s Gold
Ukrainian Yuri Nikitin beat defending champion Alexander Moskalenko to win the Olympic men’s trampoline gold yesterday at the Indoor Olympic Hall.
Nikitin, 26, whose previous biggest title came at this year’s European championships, earned 41.50 points to beat the Russian.
Moskalenko claimed the silver with 41.20 points and Germany’s Henrik Stehlik won bronze with 40.80 points.
The top eight gymnasts from the qualification round made the finals where they started again from zero.
Nikitin had only placed sixth at last year’s world championships but won individual titles at three world cup events this year prior to the Athens competition.
Cuba and Japan Reach Baseball Medal Round
The top two favorites Cuba and Japan advanced to the Olympic baseball medal round Saturday as they scored their fifth win against one loss each in the preliminary stage. Cuba, the runners-up to the United States at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, whipped Canada 5-2 to hand the North Americans their second defeat in as many days.
Yoshinobu Takahashi smashed a home-run and scored the winning run as Japan’s all-professional team came from 0-3 down to beat Taiwan’s all stars 4-3 in 10 innings, in a rematch of the Asian Olympic qualifier final.
Canada at 4-2 could reach the medal round if Australia at 3-2 beat the Netherlands at 2-3 in another match later in the day.
Italy (1-4) and winless hosts Greece were also due to clash at the bottom of the eight-nation preliminary round.
