Finn class at Athens 2004 overall
by Bob Fisher 22 Aug 2004 09:15 BST
Ben Ainslie is awarded his gold medal at the Athens 2004 Olympic regatta © Richard Langdon
To everyone’s delight and no one’s amazement, Ben Ainslie did enough in the eleventh race to take the gold medal. To be beaten, he had to be 15 places behind his friend and training partner, Rafael Trujillo of Spain, and that was an impossible task for “Rafa”.
There was very little breeze about, but Course Delta had more than the others, a southerly touching nine knots at best and fading throughout the race. Trujillo gave Ainslie the slip on the first beat, rounding the weather mark in sixth place, 14 seconds ahead of the series leader in 13th place. Ainslie overtook Zeilhaus of Holland on the reach to the wing mark and closed to within two places of the Spaniard on the run.
They began the next beat in eighth and tenth places, twelve seconds separating them. The wind dropped to six knots on this leg and the two swapped places. Kevin Hall of the USA, the initial leader slipped to fifth as Mateusz Kusznierewicz took over the front running, and stayed there to the end, chased by Richard Clarke of Canada.
From hereon in, Ainslie clamped a cover on Trujillo in the time-accustomed manner of a leader protecting his points advantage. Trujillo only passed the overall winner on the short reach from the leeward mark to the finish. Ainslie apologised to his friend for the blanket coverage and even thought that he might have overdone it so that Trujillo had missed the silver. But the 1996 gold medallist needed “Rafa” two more places further back to pass him
Ben Ainslie’s second gold medal puts him level with Britain’s greatest Olympic sailing medallist, Rodney Pattisson, who has two gold and one silver medal. Ainslie, with those he won in the Laser, now matches that, and who’s to say that he won’t go further?
Overall Results:
1, Ben Ainslie GBR 9-(DSQ)-1-1-4-1-2-3-2-1-14 38 points
2. Rafael Trujillo ESP 8-3-3-6-2-3-(OCS)-4-5-4-13 51 points
3. Mateusz Kusznierewicz POL 3-1-6-4-13-(OCS)-1711-7-2-1 53 points
4. Karl Kuret CRO 6-2-10-8-12-(18)-7-8-3-3-5 62 points