Sailing: Scott capitalises on Ainslie’s absence

Scott Giles of Britain, gold medal in the Finn class at the ISAF World Sailing Championships off Fremantle yesterday

Fellow Brit Giles Scott capitalised on the shock absence of superstar Ben Ainslie to claim the gold medal in the men’s Finn at the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Western Australia yesterday.
Ainslie, a three-times Olympic champion, had led the class at the end of Saturday’s racing and the Brit looked certain to add another gold to his collection.
But he was knocked out of medal contention when he was found guilty of gross misconduct at a subsequent jury hearing following an extraordinary altercation with a media boat on Saturday.
Just after Saturday’s first race, Ainslie climbed onto the boat and physically confronted its occupants, furious that the boat’s wake had hampered him in a close finish.
Ainslie was disqualified from both of Saturday’s races and dropped to 11th in the field, missing out on yesterday’s medal race, featuring the top 10 sailors, as a result.
Despite Ainslie’s absence, it was an enthralling medal race, as Britain’s Giles Scott and the Netherlands’ Pieter-Jan Postma jostled for the gold medal.
Postma led throughout to win the medal race, but the second-ranked Scott was able to climb from third to second in the final downwind run to the finish to win the gold medal by a whisker and secure his first world championship.
The Netherlands’ Marit Bouwmeester went one better than her second placing last year to win her first world championships gold medal in the women’s Laser Radial.
In the men’s 470, Australians Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page completed the formalities to win their second successive world championships.
The pair had an almost unassailable lead heading into the medal race and stayed out of trouble to finish fourth behind British pair Stuart Bithell and Luke Patience and secure the gold medal.
For 39-year-old Page, the 2008 Olympic champion, it was his fifth world championship gold.
The pair finished 12 points in front of Patience and Bithell, while Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic collected the bronze.
In a thrilling finish to the women’s windsurfing, Israel’s Lee Korzits held on to retain the gold medal by just one placing in the medal race.
The 27-year-old, ranked 11th in the world, went into the final race six points ahead of Poland’s Zofia Noceti-Klepacka, but won the gold by just two points after finishing fourth in the double points event, while her Polish rival finished second.
Spain’s Marina Alabau claimed the bronze medal.