Sailing-Wind writes script for finely poised finales

MARSEILLE, France :Fickle Mediterranean winds set the stage for tense finales to three of the Olympic sailing events, with the men’s and women’s dinghy medal races pushed back to Wednesday, when officials will also try to wrap up the mixed dinghies and multihulls.
Some racing was possible on Tuesday, with the multihulls completing their pre-medal race series and the mixed dinghies also getting most of theirs in challenging conditions.
Despite delays, the kiteboarders also put more races under their belts, in the build-up to their Thursday finals.
The men’s and women’s dinghy sailors waited for hours, however, for the breeze to stabilise, only for officials to fly the flags indicating that their medal races were over before they began.
Women’s gold and silver had been effectively wrapped up on Monday by Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands and Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom, with only bronze to be decided.
In the men’s dinghy, Australia’s Matt Wearn is set for a potential head-to-head ‘match race’ for gold with Cypriot Pavlos Kontides, the only sailor in the fleet who can now beat him.
Stefano Peschiera of Peru and Britain’s Micky Beckett lie third and fourth, with both able to challenge Kontides for silver if he gets pushed down the fleet.
Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti of Italy go into the mixed multihull medal race with Argentina’s Mateo Ajdalani and Eugenia Bosco chasing them for gold, while New Zealand and Britain are still in the mix for silver and bronze.
“There are three boats and two spots, so we’ll go in and battle it out,” said New Zealand’s Micah Wilkinson.
Britain’s John Gimson and Anna Burnet, who are getting married next month, said they would focus on their own strategy.
“It’s really challenging racing … I don’t think you can do much more than focusing on the details and executing your own plan,” said Burnet.
The mixed dinghies are also poised to go down to the wire, with Austria seeking to hold off Spain, Japan and Sweden.
“We are confident we are fast and we just have to be smart,” said Austria’s Lara Vadlau.
“It will be super interesting to watch, and to sail,” added her crew Lukas Maehr.
For some sailors, their Olympic odyssey may be over.
“It probably isn’t going to happen for me again,” said British Olympic veteran Chris Grube with a smile, without completely ruling out another tilt.