QINGDAO, China: Anna Tunnicliffe of the United States came from behind in the final to win the women’s Laser Radial class yesterday, and Paul Goodison took Britain’s third sailing gold of the 2008 Games in the men’s Laser.
Gintare Volungeviciute took silver in the women’s Laser Radial for Lithuania’s first sailing medal in an Olympics, while China’s Xu Lijia took bronze. In the men’s class, Vasilij Zbogar of Slovenia won the silver and Italy’s Diego Romero took the bronze.
Both medal races were held in light and shifting winds at Qingdao, the sailing venue about 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Beijing.
“It hasn’t really hit,” said British-born Tunnicliffe, 25, with a huge American flag draped over her shoulders after the first US sailing gold of the Beijing Games.
Tunnicliffe, who moved to the United States with her family at the age of 12 and later became a citizen, had enough points in nine preliminary race to assure her at least a medal after the final, which counts double. Early in the race, it looked like she would be lucky to get silver.
“It was a little too exciting,” she told the AP just after the finish. “I had a really bad start. It was very hard to focus when my competitors were gaining points on me.”
At the end of the first of four legs in the medal race, she was eighth out of the 10 boats that made the final, and at end of the next leg she was next to last. Then, heading up on the third leg, she spotted a wind shift and set off on a different course than most of the fleet.
“I wasn’t winning at that point and I saw this big left puff, and I went like ‘here goes.”’ I had to. I mean I was guaranteed a medal, and that meant a lot, so it was a risk worth taking,” she said. “I went left and moved to the front of the fleet.”
The gamble paid off. And the end of the third leg, she had climbed to No. 3, and gained one more spot on the final leg to finish second, behind Volungeviciute.
After taking silver, Volungeviciute seemed bewildered by the rush of media attention, telling Chinese officials “I need to change clothes” and moving away from the reporters.
“It’s procedure,” said the official, leading her back to the media zone.
“I worked very hard for this,” she said. “I am also very happy to get the first Olympic sailing medal for my country.”
The Chinese celebrated their country’s best-ever Olympic sailing medal by throwing the medalist, Xu, off the dock into the water.
In the men’s class, Goodison had the gold all but wrapped up on points ahead of the medal race. Only Sweden’s Rasmus Myrgren was in a position to threaten Goodison, and then only if the Swede won the final and the Briton was last.
To protect his gold, Goodison engaged Myrgren in a match race at the back of the fleet, blocking him from a top placing and keeping the Swede out of medal contention. Goodison was No. 9 of 10 in the medal race, while Myrgren was last.
“It was tricky and pretty stressful,” said Goodison. He said Myrgren knew what was coming — that Goodison would spoil his medal chances.
“I feel really sorry for Rasmus (Myrgren) and I wish it didn’t have to happen to him,” said Goodison. “But I just had to do what I had to do.” For silver medalist Zbogar, who won the bronze in the Laser class in Athens, the battle at the back for the fleet raised his odds in an extremely tight race between three boats that had a shot at silver and bronze.
“I need to thank Goodison,” said Zbogar. “I was lucky because the second place Swedish guy was very close to Goodison, ... so Goodison was watching him, and keeping him behind. Pity for him, but it left just three of us for two (other) medals.”
Today, medal races are slated for the men’s and women’s RS:X windsurfers.
After 10 races, the top of the men’s class was a virtual dead heat going into the medal race, with France’s Julien Bontemps just one point ahead of both Britain’s Nick Dempsey and New Zealand’s Tom Ashley.
In the women’s class, China’s Yin Jian, seeking her country’s first-ever sailing gold, had a six point lead on Italy’s Alessandra Sensini and eight points ahead of Britain’s Bryony Shaw after 10 races.
