Brazil sail to gold at Rio Olympics
Rio de Janeiro, Aug 19 (IANS) Brazil’s Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze have won the gold medal in the women’s skiff 49erFX sailing category at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the only medal that this year’s host nation has won so far this time around in the sport.
Grael — daughter of the iconic Brazilian regatta champ Torben Grael, the winner of five Olympic medals — and her teammate Kunze made it to the “Medal Race” with a chance for gold along with three other teams, namely those from Spain, New Zealand and Belgium on Thursday, reports Efe.
The New Zealanders — Alex Malone and Molly Meech — won the silver while Denmark’s Jena Hansen and Katja-Steen Salskov-Iversen took the bronze.
The Spanish team finished seventh.
Meanwhile, in the men’s skiff category, New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke had been assured of the gold, having clearly dominated that contest through the earlier races, with Australia’s Nathan Outtergide and Iain Jense taking the silver and Germany’s Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel garnering the bronze.
The competitors in the men’s and women’s dinghy 470 categories had been scheduled to race on Wednesday, but they had to postpone their appearance by a day due to a lack of wind in Guanabara Bay.
Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic won the gold in the men’s 470, while Australia won the silver and Greece secured the bronze.
In the women’s 470 competition, Britons Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark won the gold, New Zealand took the silver and France took the bronze.