SAILING: British pair take silver medal
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A glitch when adding up the opposition scores may have caused Britain's John Merricks and Ian Walker to snatch silver from the jaws of gold in the World 470 Championship in Brazil over the weekend. The pair, still thought to be one of Britain's strongest medal prospects for the Olympic Games in July, thought they had the top prize in the bag with enough good results from eight of the nine races.
Doing badly in that ninth race they peeled off and went home before the finish only to find that the Dutch brothers, Benny and Jan Kouwenhoven, had come through and scored enough to win.
Even then, if Merricks and Walker had been 16th or better they would have stepped up for gold. Instead they had to settle for silver by a margin of less than a point, though they were still five points ahead of the bronze medallists, Kenji Nakamura and Masato Takaki, of Japan.
A chastened pair were consoling themselves not just with the thought that it may be bad luck to go to the Games as world champions and favourites, but, more importantly, with the rock solid confidence that, in anything like a decent breeze of the kind they should be able to expect in Savannah they are the fastest in the world.
It was also a disappointing week for Britain's women. Although Bethan Raggatt and Sue Carr ended on an upbeat note as they notched up a fourth in their last race, they were still 20th overall.
A powerful performance by the reigning Olympic champion, Theresa Zabell, of Spain, saw her come powerfully from behind and add another world title to a trophy room groaning with medals and awards. Germany's Susanne Bauckholt and Nicola Birkner were second and third.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments