Diego Botin and Florian Trittel fulfilled a lifelong dream by mastering the Men’s Skiff to become Olympic champions.
The Spanish pair sailed impressively throughout the regatta, finishing top of the Opening Series by a narrow five-point margin.
Botin and Trittel had not won an individual race heading into the decisive Medal Race, but they saved their best for last, dominating the fleet in an exceptional show on the water to cross the line first.
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New Zealand’s Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie followed in the footsteps of fellow countrymen and Tokyo 49er silver medallists Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, placing second overall.
The Kiwis wrapped up the silver medal with an important third placed finish in the Medal Race, which saw them overtake Ireland’s Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove.
The Irish crew began the day in second, but dropped to fourth overall after an early crossing of the start line meant they had to restart the Medal Race.
USA’s Ian Barrows and Hans Henken benefitted from the shift in positions, managing to secure bronze after a brilliant fourth in the final sail.
Botin said: “It’s a dream come true. After years of putting the work in with the best team, with our families here, it doesn’t get any better.”
Trittel said: “Staying focused has been one of the key factors for these two days of trying to get the Medal Race in.
“We knew what we wanted, which was to do the best Medal Race we could, to win that gold medal. That made us stay very focused, we had a clear game plan and I think we managed to execute it almost perfectly.”
McHardie said: “What a feeling. No words can describe this. This is something we’ve worked really hard for in the last seven years, so to come away with a silver medal for New Zealand is incredible.
“We’ve put a lot of time and effort into playbooks and routines in Marseille which has paid dividends.”
McKenzie said: “The first beat was perfect sailing. You couldn’t really ask for better conditions than that. It made for an awesome race.”
Henken said: “Ian and I have been training for the past five years for this and we knew our chances were to go for bronze or silver. Putting ourselves in medal contention and going into that last race was what we wanted.
“A lot of things had to go our way, but we also had to execute at the highest level and we were able to get both today, and that feels amazing.”
“We had an excellent start, you can’t ask for anything better, going full speed. We had to defend the Swiss all the way to the finish line which wasn’t easy to do.”
How it works:
Medals for the Men’s Skiff (49er) will be decided by the cumulative results of the 20-strong fleet over 12 races.
The boat with the lowest total will rank first. Athletes will be able to discard their worst finishing position after they’ve completed three races.
At the end of the Opening Series, the top ten boats in the fleet will qualify for the Medal Race, which is worth double points. The score in the Medal Race cannot be discarded. The crew with the smallest overall points total will win gold.
