Denmark wins gold in Women's Laser Radial at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition
by Andy Rice, World Sailing 1 Aug 19:11 NZST
25 July - 4 August 2021
Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) has won gold in the Women's One Person Dinghy - Laser Radial with Josefin Olsson (SWE) taking silver and Marit Bouwmeester (NED) bronze.
At the start the individual recall flag went up. Two boats were over and Marit Bouwmeester (NED) was one of them. The Dutch sailor returned to start correctly, immediately putting her to the back of the 10-boat fleet and playing catch-up for the medals.
However, Silvia Zennaro (ITA) was also over at start time and didn't return. She was later pulled out of the race further up the first leg.
At the top of the first upwind leg, Tuula Tenkanen (FIN) briefly moved into a podium position but on the first downwind leg, Emma Plasschaert (BEL) surfed from fourth into the lead, moving her into silver position.
However, Bouwmeester's recovery was even more impressive, moving in on the pack on the downwind and opting for the right-hand gate when most of the fleet had gone left. From being left for dead at the start, the comeback queen was back into silver medal position.
Next it was the turn of Josefin Olsson (SWE) to have her say, having climbed from seventh in the early stages to third at the end of the first lap and up to the lead by the final windward mark. Now the Swede was in medal contention, threatening the Netherlands for silver.
Olsson crossed the finish line a fraction in front of Plasschaert. Behind her Bouwmeester had dropped a critical place and slipped back to bronze, leaving Sweden to take silver by the slimmest of margins, just three points behind Rindom who somehow clung on to gold.
Rindom and Bouwmeester are now multiple medallists. Rindom adds gold to bronze she won at Rio 2016. Today's bronze is Bouwmeester's third Olympic medal, having won silver at London 2012 and gold at Rio 2016.