Golden blondes win first GB sailing title
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Article Date: 2008-08-18
View Count: 293
Sarah Ayton and Sarah
Webb today become only the second British female athletes in history to win
back-to-back Olympic gold medals after claiming Yngling class victory with crew
Pippa Wilson at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta in Qingdao this
afternoon.
Ayton and Webb
matched the achievement of their former helm Shirley Robertson, with whom they
won Yngling gold at Athens 2004, to be the only British women in any sport to
have ever sealed gold medals at consecutive Olympic
Games.
Having topped the
leaderboard going into the double points medal race by the narrowest of one
point margins, the British trio knew whatever the placings they simply had to
finish ahead of the Dutch team of Mandy Mulder, Annemieke Bes and Merel
Witteveen.
And in a thrilling
battle for the biggest prize of them all, Ayton’s double World champion crew
made no mistakes under the most intense pressure to sprint to a sensational
medal race victory, to the Dutch team’s fifth to secure the women’s keelboat
gold 24 points to 33 overall.
Speaking after the
race Webb said: “I’m lost for words, it is such a relief. Our experience was
everything, we stayed sure and we got better.”
Ayton said: “It’s
been brilliant, this campaign has been about pure perfection and we’re just an
awesome team.”
Wilson added: “This has been the dream and it hasn’t really sunk in.”
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