Congratulations ???????????????????? ???????????????????? & ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????? for becoming 2024 Men's Skiff Olympic Champions ???????? Mchardie & Mckenzie ???????????? Barrows / Henken ????????#Paris2024Sailing #Paris2024 #Sailing #Olympics #MensSkiff pic.twitter.com/kg0pigzJmx
There was frustration yesterday as the men's skiff race failed to be completed due to inhospitable conditions, at least for Olympic sailing.
The sailors took off across the start line twice, but the race was abandoned on both occasions as the wind dissipated mid-race and conditions were deemed too light to continue.
Even after moving nearly two miles offshore, with hopes from the race committee that the wind would pick up enough for a fair race, many of the boats stopped nearly dead in their tracks while their sails began to waft.
It was a blessing in disguise for the Americans, who were off to a slow start in the first race attempt and had a lot of ground to make up to land themselves back in medal contention.
The Spanish held a consistently strong position through all three races, and so it continued in the delayed medal race on Friday (2 August).
Botin and Trittel failed to win any of the 12 fleet races prior to the medal-race finale, but claimed Olympic gold in style crossing the finish line first to secure Spain's first medal in the men’s skiff event.
“It couldn’t go any better," said Botin, who had come fourth in Tokyo. "We had a great plan, we stuck to it and it worked. It doesn’t always happen but it did this time. Amazing, amazing feeling.
“We had a very low moment the last time, finishing fourth. Experience is everything. Tokyo was a hard moment but it gave a lot of energy and drive to progress with this one, and it’s come out well. Don’t regret anything."
New Zealand, so strong in this class, claimed another medal after standing on the podium every time the event has been on the Olympic programme, with gold for the nation at Rio 2016 and two silvers since London 2012 in the men's edition.
"It feels amazing," said silver-medallist McKenzie. "It's something we always knew we could achieve but there are so many good teams out there. To win a medal for New Zealand is a dream come true. We're still trying to process it but we're just so stoked."
Conversely, Team USA won their first medal in men’s skiff sailing, taking advantage of a mistake by the Irish crew who were in a medal position after a strong performance before the medal race, but having jumped the start, they had to re-start and couldn't quite catch up after that.
Barrows summed up the feeling for the US crew: "It went super well for us. A couple (of) things went our way, luckily, because this fleet's so good. We definitely need things to go our way, and we feel very honoured and grateful to get a medal."
