Brutal 49er medal race

If you saw it in a movie or read it in a book, the 49ers’ medal race would have seemed completely implausible.

But once again truth proved stranger than fiction, as a dramatic scenario began to unfold before the start gun had even fired.

Waiting until the Finn fleet’s medal race was completed before they could get a start, the top ten 49ers contended with the big waves and confused seaway running across Course A, immediately adjacent to Qingdao Olympic marina’s seawall.

Then catastrophe for the Danish team of Jonas Warrer and Martin Ibsen, the points leaders with a handy 11 point buffer, when they broke their mast and headed back in to shore before the race had started.

With a time limit of 4:30pm for the preparatory signal rapidly approaching and the Finns still finishing their medal race, it seemed likely that the 49er medal race would have to be postponed until Day Ten, giving the Danish crew a reprieve.

But with just a minute or two in hand the race committee initiated the starting sequence, and only nine boats crossed the starting line on the gun. With the Danes absent, the new points leaders were the Italian Sibello brothers, followed by Australia’s Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin.

In 15-20kts of wind and a fast-building seaway, the fleet were already struggling to survive the conditions on the first beat.

The day was not over yet for the Danish crew, however, who reappeared sailing a boat borrowed from the Croatian team (non-qualifiers for the medal race), and crossed the start line narrowly close to the expiry of the four minute time limit for late starters.

The three-lap windward/leeward race that followed became a demolition derby for the turbo-charged skiffs and a heart-in-mouth torment for partisan spectators, as the lead – and the medal spread - changed time and time again.

Every boat capsized. Every capsize reshuffled the cards for the medals.

When Italy capsized halfway down the final run and were overtaken by Australia, Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin held the gold medal in their hands.

Every sailor has a race-losing capsize tucked away in their memory bank, but for most the only thing at stake was a club or national event, not an Olympic gold medal.

Outteridge and Austin – plus all of their many supporters here in Qingdao and at home – won’t quickly forget the capsize that came next, close to the finish and robbing them of a medal of any colour at their first Olympic Games.

“We were doing so well just to keep it upright,” said Outteridge. “When we gybed we were on the lay to the finish and we were just flogging the kite the whole time and said, ‘As soon as we get a little bit of a flat spot or a lull, just get the kite off and we’ve just got to take it home.’

“We had just maybe 150 metres to go and there was a big wave, I just couldn’t steer around it and we just capsized straight into it.”

This left the way clear for the 2004 49er gold medallists Iker Martinez and Zabier Fernandez of Spain to sail through and win the medal race, and it looked like they would claim the gold followed by the second placegetters, Jan Peter and Hannes Peckolt of Germany.

But incredibly, the Danish crew in the Croatian boat came through the scattered carnage of capsized and damaged boats to finish seventh, good enough to push the Spanish and German teams into silver and bronze respectively.

Australia’s bruised and shattered crew crossed the line sixth after another capsize, for fifth overall.

Ben Austin said, “Before we went down the last run we’d decided that spinnaker up was going to be the safest option to get us down the course, and we got through the gybe and came so close…

“The waves were getting really ugly down the bottom of the course there. I don’t think there was anything we could have done.

“We had to go out and race aggressively. We had trained specifically for those conditions because we knew that that could happen here.

“The work showed, we got around the course for two and a half laps really well…

“After the first capsize we could still have had the bronze, but we damaged so much stuff in the first capsize, the spinaker was still sitting loose on the deck, the boat was just a mess and trying to get it through a gybe was just going to be really hard work.

“The waves were by far and away the biggest problem, and they were just getting bigger and bigger and bigger the whole race.

“The boat looks like we’ve just sailed across the Atlantic. It’s just trashed.

“They’re not designed for those waves, they’re designed for Sydney Harbour and flat water. Sailing them out there they’re a bit of a wild beast.”

At the time of writing a protest by the race committee against Denmark, heard by the international jury late into the night, had been adjourned until the morning of Monday, August 18 to determine the 49er medallists.

This followed the dismissal by the jury of the USA 49er team’s request for redress under RRS 62.1(a), based on an alleged improper action of the race committee.

Provisional placings (19 boats):

1. DEN, Jonas Warrer/Martin Kirketerp Ibsen, 2-4-(10)-4-2-3-4-2-9-2-7-8-14(7), 61pts

2. ESP, Iker Martinez/Xabier Fernandez, 1-10-17-2-(ocs)-5-7-10-3-4-1-2-2(1), 64pts

3. GER, Jan-Peter Peckolt/Hannes Peckolt, (15)-6-11-6-3-2-2-12-4-5-4-7-4(2), 66pts

4. ITA, Pietro Sibello/Gianfranco Sibello, 3-9-1-1-6-9-3-8-12-(17)-3-3-8(4), 66pts

3. AUS, Nathan Outteridge/Ben Austin, (dsq)-1-7-3-1-1-6-4-6-4-12-2-18-12(6), 73