Blair Tuke and Peter Burling went heartbreakingly close today to winning their second successive Olympic men’s 49er sailing gold medal.
The New Zealanders, silver medallists in London in 2012 and gold medallists in Rio in 2016, led the 49er fleet going into today’s medal race, where points count double.
After a thrilling race, the New Zealanders finished third behind Britain and Germany and Britain snatched the gold medal on a countback after they and New Zealand finished the competition level on 58 points.
“We wanted to win the race. That would mean we kept control of our destiny,” said Tuke.
“Unfortunately the Germans got right up there early on and there were the three of us going for it. We ended up in the worst possible spot – third – but that’s the way it goes.”
The Germans seemed likely to win the medal race, which would have helped New Zealand win gold, but the British team of Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell caught them just before the end.
“We were hoping the Germans would stay in front right at the end there,” Burling said. “But there were very tight margins in the racing all week. We fought hard to win, but couldn’t quite do it. We didn’t get off to the best start today, but then we got right back into it, then we lost it right at the end.
“I guess we’ve got mixed emotions. It’s an honour to represent New Zealand and to win an Olympic silver medal for the country, but our ultimate goal was to successfully defend our Olympic title.”
Tuke said the racing had been extremely tight all week. “We were never able to get out the front and extend our lead, so it was not surprising that it all came down to the wire like it did today. That’s the way it goes – it’s not every day you lose an Olympic gold on countback.”
Britain won the gold because under the rules of this regatta, in the event of points being level, the team which performed better in the medal race was the winner.
In other racing today, the New Zealand men’s 470 team of Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox had their last two races before tomorrow’s medal round, and recorded finishes of 6th and 3rd, which leaves them in fourth place. The gold will almost certainly go to Australians Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan, but second and third-placed Sweden and Spain are certainly within the sights of the New Zealanders.
New Zealand finn class sailor Josh Junior, fighting hard in the medal race to get among the medals, could manage only 8th. He was as high as third midway through the race but lost ground on the closing stages. The finn gold medal went to Briton Giles Scott with 36 points from Hungarian Zsombor Berecz. Junior was fifth with 67 points.