49er medal race start

[maxendenia]

the croatians are so nice to give them the boat and ad the end of the race the just jump, stamp, punch,... on it? don't think that is fair for them too, I guess its a bit rude doing that stuff on others boat...

[harpsaxbassman]

looks like those spins in this race did a lot less for them then more in this race, so many capsizes

[paparotta]

Forza ragazzi non mollate!

[klaaskabouter]

yes, if you want to finish first, you first need to finish

[xoxsweetixox]

whole danish team do great! I went with dad yesterday and on saturday and everyone has been training really hard so i hope that that training duz good for them! I'm going again on saturday for the final races so that should be great! Dad had the danish and swedish 470 girls round at his house training! And they are all realllllly smiley! Thats wot i luv about the danes and swedes! Always Smiling!

Sorry dat woz long! Just wonted to say!

Luv Ya All

xxx

[xoxsweetixox]

good bye or would you find a boat that didn't make it too the medal race and ask them if you could use their boat?? Think About it, that only happens once every 4 years and no one wants to let go of a medal position. When you've tried sooooooooooooooooooo hard for a medal you can't just not do any thing about it, you can't just sit there like a lemon and feel sorry for yourself, you've got to do something about it. Any way, at the moment the sail for gold regatta is on in weymouth and i hope ...

[xoxsweetixox]

My Dad Is the head coach and in charge of all the olympic stuff for the danish sailing federation and he was there to help the danes. For people who think that the danes shouldn't have got the gold, think about what you would do if you were in their position, imagine you had given it your all and more to get into that gold position, your sailing out to the final race and your mast snaps. You come back in and you don't have a boat. So would you just want to sit there and kiss that gold medal ...

[JakeBerlin]

...been introduced to make sailing more TV-friendly. In earlier Olympics, there have been winners who did not even sail the final race, because they had a discard to spare - this could have been the case for the Danes under the old format.

What we have seen is the worst case scenario for the medal race format: leader has gear failure before non-discardable last race. You bet that the authoroties accounted for this dilemma when not dsq-ing the Danes. Medal Race format needs reconsideration.

[JakeBerlin]

Some people who think the Danes acted unsportsmanlike by borrowing the Croatian boat seem to be unaware about the format of sailing regattas. Traditionally, important small boat regattas are held as a series of 6 to say 15 races. The worst one or two races are DISCARDED in the final score. The idea is that a series of races will bring out the best sailor, and equal out the common mishaps (early starts, fouls, equipment failure) that everbody might encounter. The non-discardable Medal Race has

[RedheadDane]

fcbfan2k

Well... I hardly thing anyone out there was looking after the other's flags... everyone had enough to do with keeping the boat upright... The Spaniards were best at that therefore they finnished first in that particular race... however... the Danes showed they were best in all the races compined!

aeskild... yeah... and why would anyone go on a practice race when they weren't in the competition anymore? And during a storm...

[PixelPuma]

Fuck Spain and Italy - totally lack of sportsmanship! The Danes WON the medal on sea and the poor and idiotic men from Spain and Italy tried to win it by paperwork. It turned out that CAS agreed with the previous judgement and let the best men win. Italy, congrats with being #4, hehe! Spain, be happy with the silver medal, you don't even deserve that!

[aeskild]

In the final medal race the Spanish team won in front of the Brits, the Germans and the Italians. The Danish/Croatian boat ;-) finished seventh - so this crap with "the other teams thought the Croatian boat was on a practice run" is far out and wouldn´t have changed anything. No team is allowed to make a practise run during a medal race - the Spanish and Italians know that very well. Watching the video I think the sailors were all happy just to finish the race alive.

[gelle81]

the apeal was turned down by CAS

and the gold stay where it belongs

[fcbfan2k]

gelle, precisely having the Croation boat WAS an advantage, because other competitiors didn't know that was Denmark, competitiors even said that they thought croats must have been on a training run. So IT IS AN ADVANTAGE...PLUS, do you think that Italians would have eased and settled for a 5th to win their bronze if they didn't know the Croatian boat was denmark. Or do you think the two boats in front of the Danes would have quit if they new that Denmark was right behind them? NO

[xoxsweetixox]

Actually, it wasn't an advantage for dem, some of the other competitors might have not realized that they were the danes but the danes weren't used to the rig set up or the boat set up and didn't have a clue about it, so basically they were sailing a boat which wasn't set up for them but for the technique of the croation boat.

[RedheadDane]

@xoxsweetixox

Yeah... and what did it matter the other teams didn't know it was the DANES anyway? Sure they could've guessed it was another boat in the competition and not, as Spain claimed they'd thought, simply Croatia training...

[gelle81]

the danish team was the best sailors and they won

the gold should not be decided of some so small things

it would have been another thing if the danish boat have done something to make there chances better of winning

but the danish team sailing the croatian boat just make the race harder for the danish team NOT better

so overall the danish team won even with a boat that not was as good as the spanish/italian boat

cause it was not trim up for the danish team.

So congrats to the best team DENMARK

[fcbfan2k]

Is it fair this? Is it sportmanship to compete against others they don't know 'who' you are or don't know you are competing against them? Problem 2: Any boat has to be inspected and spend some time in 'quaranteine' before each race. The croatian boat did not spend it because it wasn't going to compete. (another rule broken). Besides, rule number 3 of the reglamentation says that all boats have to have a camera (3 kilos weight). The croatian boat did not have the camera. (another rule broken).

[samm6598]

m8- 3 kilos of weight on a skiff in 15- 20 knots is not gonna make any difference

[fcbfan2k]

the reglamentation says that you can change any part of your boat, not the boat itself (the olympic yachting reglamentation, points 21.2 and 21.3) C1- you must show national symbols for easy identification during the race. The italians needed just 5th to get bronze with the danes out of the race and they finish 5th. Curious? I don't think so. They didn't risk more because they were getting the medal and if you watch the race they celebrate after finishing because they think they won a bronze.

[fcbfan2k]

You danes should be the last to talk about sportmanship, YOU BROKE AT LEAST 5 ARTICLES OF THE RULE MANUAL, Most notably 21.2 and 21.3of the Olimpic Race instructions, and also article C1 rule of 49er class rule manual.

Read and find out.

So please don't make ignorant comments, Bad sportsmen are the ones that win braking rules.

If Spain won Denmark's medal braking rules Danes would have done the same...

--annoyed Spaniard

[ivanbulaja]

Danish gold is well deserved! Sailing others people 49er in that conditions is twice as hard as sailing your own. They started 4 minutes after everybody else and were probably under great stress at that time so if u think they had an advantage you are very wrong. We would give that boat to ANY other team ( Spanish even ) if they broke something because it should be decided on water.

[seanpatrick34]

I understand the Spanish apeal, but i just heard, they've apealed to CAS or CAIS, some international sports court. I think it is a shame that the spanish and italian sailers can't accept the fact that their first appeal was turned down..

Sean Patrick from Denmark :)

[herrlichewelt]

ich finde es richtig gut und besonders schön, dass hannes & pit bronze geschafft haben. alle hatten die gleichen "miesen" voraussetzungen im medal-race und haben es irgendwie gemeistert, mit mehr oder weniger glück! herzlichen glückwunsch euch beiden! herrliche welt

[marlenjen]

I wouldn't say that the boat was stolen. True, they started to get the boat into the water prior to contacting the Croatians. But as they were doing so, the Croats were contacted by mobile phone. Two minutes later they came running down to help the Danes to put the boat in the water. Stealing? Not really, but a great display of sportsmanship.

The Danes were excellent sailors and the best team won. It's not about the boat but about the the skills of the people on it.

[guayaboTROIS]

What is OLYMPIC SPIRIT ABOUT? Is it about 'steal' rival boats?? It's quite unfair the OK given from the jury to accept the gold medal to Danish. It was such an irrational action that there is NO RULE for this kind of infractions... What croats made isn't a sportmanship. It's the same as if Raikkonen breaks down his car during the training lap and Kubica borrows his car... or Am I wrong? The spirit of the sport is accepting the VICTORY AND THE LOST, that's is a good sportman.SPANIARDS MUST WIN

[mr82769]

Hahah idiot. To quote YOU: "The spirit of the sport is accepting the VICTORY AND THE LOST, that's is a good sportman". Then accept that the danes were lightyears ahead and only very bad luck would keep the gold away. You spaniards are massive losers if you cant handle this.

The only reason your Formula 1 example works is because of money. And the Olympics are not about money - its about sportsmanship. So plz stop whining!

[shifty438]

hear hear!

[mephisto0408]

The danes deserved the GOLD. In the spanish paper you can read all the spanish people being mad about the fact that they lost the medal.

But look at all the races. The danes had a BIG lead. And their mast broke before the last race. where they where pretty much sure, that they would get gold.

They started 3,57 minuts later then everyone. THey had a boat that they did not know! This is the olympic spirit. to keep on fighting! AND WIN! good drama with a deserved winner. :D

[maxendenia]

@mephisto0408 I guess you are right, the spirit of sailing is that but, actually its a strict sport where you got many many rules so, if you brake the rules you dont deserve to win even if its more heroic to do what the danish team did because I think they didt an amazing race but rules are rules and if we dont agree all of them, then we wouldnt be able to sail fairly....

[rob50904]

the danish team was the best team before the medal race and it would have been unfair if they wouldn't have won gold after such a chaotic last race.

[malunte77]

but we got the goldmedal,great race.i have never seen something like this race,and maybe never again,

[gelle81]

what rule didt they ignore ?

there did happened a lot of crazy thing in that race.

that they never could have imagined when the rules were made.

so there was no rule violation from the Danish side.

beside there was not a cam in the boat or a danish flag on the sail.

but the danish team didt everything to get ready for the start.

so thoose 2 small technicalities should not change anything.

[nanopore]

I disagree on many things. But i won't argue (that much). Congrats to the winners, they had bad luck (breaking mast just before the start), or very good luck (RC and protest committee ignoring rules).

[charlivoo]

WHAT RULE DID THEY IGNORRE?!

[29erfast]

OMG!!those are very hard conditions!

[ElvenDane]

Incredible how a German commentator is able to almost completely forget about the leading Danish boat :-) Well, we shouldn't be surprised, should we ?

They broke their mast before start and had to borrow a boat from the Croats - fantastic sportsmanship, guys ! Thanks.

The protests are still being sorted out - the jury was sitting for 6 hours today. The race should have been cancelled or postponed to tomorrow before it ever came to this complete mess. Not fair !

[lisonghao]

I think nobody thought the Danes were able to get back into the race. I watched it in CBC (in Canada). There were a few very brief shots of the Danes. Everybody thought they will be dead last, even when they got back onto the course in Croats' boat. They thought they just might be able salvage a medal. It was until they crossed Mark 5 infront of the Brazilians when the commentators actually realized that they were back in the race.