Olympic silver medal-winning windsurfer Nick Dempsey today etched his name into the history books by becoming the first man ever to win two RS:X Windsurfing World Championship titles.

There were double celebrations for Skandia Team GBR, with Bryony Shaw also claiming silver in the women’s fleet – her first ever podium finish at an RS:X World Championship, on Wednesday (6 March).

The 32-year-old Dempsey claimed gold in emphatic style at the Brazilian venue of Buzios, going into the final medal race with a nine-point lead over Dutchman Dorian Van Rijsselberge – the 2012 Olympic Champion.

Light winds delayed the start of Wednesday’s medal races, but they eventually got underway in 12 knot shifty and gusty conditions, with Van Rijsselberge, the 2011 World Champion, quick out of the blocks.  Dempsey had a slower start in the 10-board finale, but sailed a superb second upwind leg to move back through the fleet and maintain his hold on the gold medal.
The Weymouth-based windsurfer adds this 2013 title to the world crown he won on home waters in Weymouth and Portland in 2009, and admits it was “pretty good” to be the first male winner of two RS:X world titles, and that the win is a great boost at the start of his Rio campaign.

“After the Olympics, I didn’t know if I wanted to carry on.  I didn’t know if I still had it in me.  But windsurfing is what I love, I love doing it,” the Skandia Team GBR sailor explained.

“This trip has been great preparation for Rio and I think it’s going to suit me there.  It’s going be slightly lighter in Rio than here, but I’m one of the smaller guys in the fleet so hopefully that will work in my favour.”

“I didn’t really have any idea of how I was going to perform [at the Worlds] after so long off the board after the Olympics,” Dempsey continued.  “With just a seven-week build up you can’t really expect too much, but I have trained really hard in that time and it’s been a long time away from home.

“I’ve kept it steady this week and did everything I could, and have ended up having one of the best regattas of my life!  My strengths have always been that I can perform across the range of conditions and we’ve had that this week.

“Maybe going into the event without any real expectations helped me relax a bit, but I’m always pretty relaxed I think.  I don’t think you can ever expect to be at the front of the fleet all of the time.”

Dempsey’s long-serving coach Barrie Edgington has been impressed with his protégé.

“It’s been a challenging week, but Nick held it together and has been really impressive,” said Edgington.

“Considering the build up we have had, he’s had one of the best week’s sailing in the 17 years that I have been working with him, and it bodes really well.  It just goes to show that age and experience still count for so much in sailing – that experience has definitely helped Nick make the right decisions this week.”

Beijing bronze medallist Bryony Shaw added to the British Sailing Team’s joys in Buzios, claiming a silver and her first ever podium spot at an RS:X World Championship.

With the gold medal already assured to Israel’s Lee Korsitz ahead of the final race, Shaw trained her sights on preventing an Israeli 1-2.  She trailed Maayan Davidovich by three points, going into the final day in the bronze medal position.

But a determined display saw the British sailor finish fourth in the medal race to Davidovich’s ninth and overhaul the Israeli sailor into the silver medal spot.

“I’m really happy to come away with silver,” the 29-year-old enthused.  “I feel I’ve been sailing really well, especially for the first two-thirds of the week.  I really wanted to close the points on Lee and yesterday was the day to have done that.  It was shifty and tactically hard, and she has been sailing phenomenally in all conditions, so all credit to her, she got away!”

“My Games year didn’t work out as I had wanted and it was tough – physically and mentally – so the most important thing for me here is to have had that self-belief grow back inside me again that I do still have it and I can perform on the water.

Shaw concluded: “Since windsurfing had its Olympic reprieve I’ve just been super-excited to get back on the board again.  This week has been really important for me confidence-wise and I’ve showed a few things this week and am developing some real super-strengths.”

For full regatta results, visit http://worldwindsurfingchampionships2013.rsxclass.com 

For the latest news and information from the Skandia Team GBR British Sailing Team visit www.skandiateamgbr.com or follow us on Twitter @BritishSailing.

________________________________________________________________

The first big event post London 2012 for the RS:X windsurfing class is well underway in Brazil. The world championships has attracted all of the top racers and the action has been close in the relatively light winds (up to 15knots) and warm weather.

RS:X worlds, racing underway

Nick Dempsey, El Carney and Tom Squires, are representing team GB in the men’s fleet, with Nick currently in third position.

Men’s results after race five. 

In the women’s fleet Bryony Shaw is having an exceptional event, and is currently in first place with fellow Brit Izzy Hamilton in 18th and Claudia Carney in 30th.

Women’s results after race five. 

The racing continues in Brazil until the 7th of March, so we wish all the competitors luck for the coming races. We’ll have more info from team GB as the competition continues.

Check out full event info here. 

Barrie chats about his role as a coach working with the squad and with Nick; how his role differs in training compared to his involvement during regattas; the pressures coaches face, the qualities required to be a successful coach and what he loves about coaching.

Check out more videos and interviews on the RYA You Tube channel here. 

Nick Dempsey

It’s always good to come away from an event with a medal. It’s even better when you’ve gone in to that event more unprepared than you’ve ever been in your life!

The ISAF World Cup Miami was a great loosener for me having not really done any sailing since the Olympics. After I made the call to do another Olympic campaign for Rio I’d planned to get back on to the board in December. But when it came to it I just didn’t feel ready.

Instead of feeling bad about what I should or shouldn’t be doing I made the decision to draw a line under 2012 and start afresh in January. Miami was the deadline I set for myself where I had to be back on the board.

I arrived in Miami for five days training before the regatta, but in the first race my whole body was like ‘Oh my god I can’t do this!’ I’d probably been out on my board three times since the Games, none of which were planing conditions, so to be racing and planing again, well I just got spat straight out the back. The board felt heavy, I felt slow and it hurt.

At this stage I was thinking I would be pleased to just get through the event in one piece! But when you’re in that sort of environment your competitive instinct always takes over and within half an hour I was fine again. Rusty but fine.

Miami RS:X racing

I’m a racer and it’s my nature to want to win every event I enter. You can go underprepared but when you’re actually there you can still do everything properly and the way you would do it as if it was any other Grade One event. There’s no point doing an event otherwise.

The racing format was certainly one of the most talked about parts of the week, and I’ve already made it clear I wasn’t a fan.

We found out when the Sailing Instructions were issued a couple of days’ before racing how it was going to work. You have to be open-minded to these things and when you know that the racing formats are being experimented with you can only form a valid opinion, and give what you hope will be valuable, credible feedback, if you’ve actually tried it yourself.

But it was obvious right from the outset that this particular format would be leaving too much to chance. You could qualify last from each of the fleet series, quarter-finals and semi-finals and still walk away with the gold medal if you won the final six-board race.

How can you spend four years of your life training for what could come down to one 15 minute blast in Rio where the winner takes all, regardless of how they have sailed in the rest of the event?

A sailing regatta is supposed to reward consistency over the course of a series. Ours is an environmental sport where conditions can fluctuate from day to day. But you always know that over the course of a series invariably things will level themselves out, and the people who have been consistent across the full range of conditions – ie the best sailors that week – will win the medals. It’s the way it should be, not a winner-takes-all final race showdown.

My preference would be to go back to what we had in Athens, with no medal race at all. It was simple then; the person with the least points wins. It’s like golf, everyone understood it. Now it feels like they’re just trying to make the sport something that it’s not, and in doing so, the sport gets further away from athletic achievement and consistent performance.

The overriding feeling in the boat park was this format just isn’t fair competition. It is always nice to beat Dorian (van Rijsselberghe) though!

For the Worlds in Buzios, Brazil next month we go back to the standard qualifying, gold fleet, medal race format we’re used to, which I’m grateful for.

The plan was to fly out to Brazil at the weekend but we turned up at the airport on Saturday and found KLM were not too happy about all the luggage we were taking so were delayed and finally arrived today. It was a slightly epic and rather long journey – battling against the carnival traffic to Buzios but we arrived to 20 knots and sunshine and it is amazing as ever.

I’m looking forward to getting out there and reuniting with my Olympic training group, including Ivan Pastor, who won in Miami, and my Skandia Team GBR teammate, Tom Squires, to get him up to speed as a training partner.

It’s going to be three hard weeks’ training but it’s what I need. The camp will be all about sailing; probably an hour-and-a-half every morning, lunch, then two hours every afternoon. Fitness will come, but first and foremost I need to spend real time on the board again.

Buzios is beautiful but it’s not like the US or UK at the moment, where there are state-of-the-art fitness suites in the hotels and apartment complexes. In Buzios you could do some mountain biking but with the limited amount of time in the venue I have that can all wait until I get home. I have to take advantage of being able to spend quality time on the water.

It will be difficult to win the Worlds, but not impossible. It’s likely to be very windy and we aren’t expecting a range of conditions, but you always find something extra at a Worlds.

Between now and the Worlds, which start on February 28, I’ll be enjoying getting my kit together again and just being out on my board really starting to look ahead at what the next three-and-a-half years can bring.

Nick

Check out more from Nick here and head to the next page for his previous blog post.

Another eventful week in the world of windsurfing has flown by! The competition is still going in Miami as RS:X competitors get close to the winner takes all final race, follow the progress of Nick, Bryony, El Carney, Izzy Hamilton and more here. Of course this week was dominated by another competition, the much awaited Red Bull Storm Chase, which hit Ireland early this week. Check out all the action here and we will have brand new interview with the only Brit to make the chase, Robby Swift, very soon too!

The week started off with an amazing video from Max Rowe in Brazil, as well as footage from a secret speed spot! Though temperatures are  not finally on the up, we had a few more ice and snow windsurfing videos for you too here. 

Ant Baker took advantage of the slightly warmer weather and took out his brand new North and Fanatic slalom set up out for a spin, just before North Sails released the official video and new information on the very same sail.

Another top slalom racer also looking to get ready for the BSA season is Ross Williams, who will be hosting some training and warm up clinics over at the OTC Puravida centre in Weymouth.

Our final note this week goes to Andy ‘Buzz’ Buchanan, another incredible windsurfer who sadly left us this week. RIP Buzz, hope you’re ripping it up with Mikey.

Things are hotting up in Miami as the quarter final stage of competition is reached.

The top ten from each fleet now go forward into the next stage of competition, battling it out for a place in the final six to be in with a chance of the overall win.

In the men’s fleet Dorian put away another couple of bullets, securing his place at the top whilst Dempsey stays in third with another two decent results. El Carney also makes it into the top ten and currently lies in fifth position.

Bryony Shaw has moved up to second in the women’s fleet with a first and second in racing yesterday, whilst Izzy Hamilton also scored a bullet keeping her in sixth position. Great work girls!

After more racing the final six will be decided, then it’s all to play for in the final race where winner takes all!

Men’s results

Women’s results.

Win great prizes everyday including tickets to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, exclusive sailing days, Alex Thomson Racing and J.P Morgan BAR goody bags, Skandia Team GBR kit plus more great giveaways.

Find out more here

Cruise Into Christmas

Dempsey - sponsored by Volvo

This first thing that caught our eye this week was the awesome video released from the King of the Wind in Weymouth; it was a hugely successful event and brilliant to have such a great show on British shores as you can see!

The records continue to fall in Ludertiz, first we caught up with Zara Davis and then Antoine Albeau smashed the record again taking it over 52knots!

Boards also heard that Olympic silver medalist Nick Dempsey will be campaigning once more, for the 2016 Games in Rio now it is confirmed that windsurfing has retained its place.

Christmas is coming up quickly now, which means fantastic offers are around from many shops. Robin Hood Watersports and Zero Gravity both have fab offers on in the lead up to the festive season, whilst Club Vass have announced they’ll be running a competition to win a holiday for two! Plus, Boardwise have a Black Friday deal running for today only!

For further videos from the RYA check out their You Tube channel here. 

Check out the full video through this link http://bcove.me/vpqzcwvn

Get involved in windsurfing!

Men's RS:X medalists

Dorian van Rijsselberge – Gold Medalist from Holland

Making It Look Easy

“I’m enjoying myself and sometimes people think when you’re enjoying yourself everything looks easy, but it’s never easy.

Yeah I’ve had a lot of fun, we haven’t been sitting on our bums the whole time, we’ve been cruising around having fun, giving people stick, those little things are a lot of fun!”

Sailing on the Nothe

“The crowds there are amazing, it’s so spectacular to have such crowds. As soon as you’re sailing on the course and everybody’s rooting for you, you just cannot not laugh. You get a smile on your face and a little bit of goosebumps too.

It is tricky, it’s never the same. You can work with it or complain about it, and I think that a strong point for me was that I dealt with it. Some people see problems, other people see opportunities and I am one of the guys that sees the opportunities and tries to work with what I get. This was proper sailing, it shows the tactics come into play even more than normal and I think that’s what it’s all about.”

Dorian van Rijsselberghe. © Boards Magazine / Adam Duckworth

How To Take Gold

“I think it’s the consistency that I’m sailing with, initiating tacks and gybes, I’m always trying to work hard for every little metre that I can get here and there. In the big picture it helped me a lot.

The conditions were great for me this week yes, but it always comes back to working hard on the race course. If you can take one place extra day, all of a sudden the spread is a lot.

People tell me I’m going so fast, but to me everyone has the same equipment so it’s hard to believe I am going that much faster. I was actually a little scared at the beginning of the regatta, because we had the practice race and Nick was going a bit higher than me.

When you’re racing at the front of the pack you have clear air and you can go where ever you want, to make the right decisions you can gain a lot rather than sailing in dirty air. Especially when two people behind you are fighting for two and three, you’re sailing away, it’s like that within any sailing class.”

Equipment at the Games

“I think the job that the supplier did with the equipment was amazing, the margins they have to work with are so little and they definitely did a good job. People complaining about the equipment is understandable, we’re top athletes so if there is a millimeter here or there, which is incorrect on the board we feel it and we want to get the maximum out of the boards so we’re really critical. But even though we’re that critical they still made a really good job with the equipment.”

The Future

“Yes, I’m planning to have a little look on those kites. I’ve been kitesurfing a little bit at home already, but not on the full course racing boards. I think it’s a bit early to know much about the kites just yet, it’s still super young sport but bring it on!

There’s no doubt about it, I would prefer it to remain on RS:X, windsurfing is supposed to be in the Olympics, there’s no doubt about that, it’s such a shame that it goes out.

A lot of schools and clubs in Holland are set up for windsurfing and are totally shocked about the decision to take kitesurfing to the Olympics, as there is no real structure for it yet. But otherwise, for me personally it’s a challenge, I’m willing to have a look and also see how the other windsurf guys come over onto kiting.”

Crazy Nicknames

“It’s crazy penis because in the World Championships in 2011 in Perth, I came off the water and the first thing I said to Dutch television was ‘yeah mate crazy penis’ (Ed – said in a bad kiwi/aussie accent!) the Dutch media guy thought it was a good line, kept it on the TV and broadcast it nationally. So everyone kind of took it on!”

Views on Nick

“Nick’s a good guy, so I’m so stoked for him. Out of all the other guys I know Nick is one that deserved silver, maybe more, but not as much as I did!”

Nick Dempsey. © Boards Magazine / Adam Duckworth

Nick Dempsey – Silver Medalist from Great Britain

The Racing

“These moments don’t come around often and if you can share them with friends and family then even better.

Yeah I was nervous, but one the count down goes the nerves kind of go away and you start concentrating on the situation. I felt I was in control.

If it had like I had thrown it away it would have been a lot harder, but Dorian just sailed exceptionally well. I still feel like I did everything right, I sailed well. It definitely makes up for four years ago, although not entirely.”

The Future

“I think actually it’s a massive shame that windsurfing has currently been dropped, especially for this country and in fact the whole of windsurfing it’s a massive shame. I think this week the RS:X sailors demonstrated how good an Olympic discipline it is, how close it is, well except when you’re racing against Dorian, but how fair and how great a class it is within the Olympic games. I don’t really have much of an opinion about kitesurfing, I haven’t done it and I haven’t seen too much of it, but for windsurfing it’s not great.”

Training as a Family Man

“It’s been a lot harder to train for the Olympics, now as a family man. It’s the same as any demanding job, as soon as you have a family you have more to work for, but of course it’s harder. People often talk about the sacrifices they make within sport, but actually for me I never really made any sacrifices because I enjoyed what I was doing so much. The only sacrifice I’ve made is time away from the kids, it is emotional and it’s tough but it helps having an understanding wife and two well behaved boys.”

Przemyslaw Miarczynski. © Boards Magazine / Adam Duckworth

Przemyslaw Miarczynski – Bronze Medalist from Poland

Double Bronze for Poland

“I am very happy, my dream has come true, it’s amazing. I am very happy that Zofia also got a medal, two medals in windsurfing is incredible.

We are of course very happy, more or less we knew it would be possible to get two medals. Maybe we knew Zofia had a better chance as she won the test event here, I thought it would be much easier for her to wind a medal. Windsurfing in Poland is at a very high level, not only on the Olympic windsurfing but with the young people and formula windsurfing. Now to get two medals from the Olympics I think it’s a really great thing for Polish sailing.”

The Future

“For me if RS:X stays in the Olympics, I don’t know if I would have the energy and the motivation to continue to Rio. But in kitesurfing I am still fit and quite young, so maybe I will try. So it’s the motivation for me to make something completely different. I hope kitesurfing stays, but that there will also be windsurfing.”

Neil Pryde

Advancing the RS:X

“The RS:X class was designed in 2005, it’s quite a few years ago now in terms of how sports equipment evolves and because it’s one design we as a manufacturer can’t make any changes in this equipment without the approval of the class. We know with the information we have today, we could make changes to this equipment that would make it better, stronger and more accommodating to the development that is taking place with the skills of the sailors. They have advanced, but because the equipment is stuck where it was when it was first designed we’re not able to move.

This is the frustration we have, because we know that if we were to design fresh today we would make changes, knowing now the skills the sailors have and the power they can generate from the rig we would probably upgrade certain aspects but that needs the class decision and we don’t control the class.

ISAF asked us in 2007 or 2008, I can’t remember when it was, asked us to come up with some proposed changes to improve the RS:X to make sure that the equipment remained relevant and modern etc. We then spent two years in evolving this equipment in small ways to try and achieve some performance improvements. But in the end actually, even though it was not adding any cost, the class decided they did not want to make any changes and wanting to maintain continuity as the class continued to grow on a global scale. So this is an example of how we are a manufacturer, in the end we are controlled by the class decisions and development.

We of course cooperate with the class closely. The class represents a huge number of vested interests, national authorities, coaches, etc, so when it comes to a decision on changing the equipment they all get involved. So it’s a very democratic and open decision. We understand where they are coming from, but it was a little disappointing to us that we launched a two year development programme to try and improve the equipment without changing the cost, but that in the end they didn’t go with it.”

If this is the end of the RS:X? 

“I’ve made it clear to ISAF that we’re going to continue supporting it. We have a huge financial commitment, we’ve supplied all of this equipment here at the Games totally free of charge, we have half a million euro tied up in equipment at the Olympics. Plus we have another half a million euro for all the equipment we supply at the youth worlds, which was just recently completed in Dublin. We’ve always in the past been able to sell this equipment off at a cheap price to help developing countries get into the sport. With windsurfing being taken out of the Olympics we’re sitting here today with no way of selling and recovering a million euro. So that’s a pretty big commitment, I doubt there’s any other sailing company in these Olympics that have made such a level of commitment to the sport that we have. I do it because frankly I love the sport and it’s been a reasonably good business, but today we don’t make any money out of this, it’s a loss.

I believe in the future of windsurfing so we’ve promised ISAF that at least for the next two years we will go on supplying the equipment for the youth worlds because we believe in them. Straight after the decision we got an email from ISAF asking us what was our position for the future, so I went straight back and said yes, we will continue to honour our commitment because I think it’s the right thing to do. I believe windsurfing is still a fantastic sport and should be in the Olympic arena. To some extent yes that is throwing money away, but you have to have a certain belief in what you are doing too. Lets face it I make pretty good profits on the kitesurfing business and in normal circumstances we can invest this money in windsurfing. We hope it will be turned around.

But it’s a tough thing to sell to your share holders and to your owners of the company.

RS:X men racing

We have also brought out a new one design, a feeder class into the RS:X, called the RS:One so we’re still investing in windsurfing through that. We have the world tour racing series on the RS:One sponsored by Jaguar and in conjunction with the extreme 40 racing circuit. So we are still investing strongly in windsurfing, because I believe the future of windsurfing is going to lay very much in associating ourselves with the sailing community and yacht clubs. We see windsurfing as real alternative to the young kids coming through the optimist class. You look at the optimist class and it is the basic training boat, probably 70-80% of the kids coming out of this just disappear from sailing, there’s a huge drop out rate. We think this is largely because the follow on boats that are available to them are either too expensive or not exciting enough. With inexpensive, one design windsurfing we offer them a real option. We’re seeing this taken up in many countries, clubs and yacht clubs are looking to windsurfing as a way forward in the youth area. We have seen this at the recent ISAF Youth Worlds in Dublin where we ran windsurfing experiences on the lay day for the local sailors, the clubs there are looking at new windsurfing fleets to build on this.”

RS:X Youth Racing in Dublin

Views on the Removal of Windsurfing from the Olympics

“At a conference in Athens roughly two years ago, with the discussion going on we knew that there was some strength behind kitesurfing from some executives at ISAF to make this change for varied reasons.

Personally I think it’s a terrible decision. I’m an Olympic sailor myself, I’ve sailed in the Olympics so I have a very strong feeling about the level of the we see in the Olympic games and I just think this was a terrible decision. That’s a personal opinion, apart from business because I see what windsurfing has done for the sport of sailing in so many developing countries. We see this in Asia, countries like Singapore and Thailand have a whole group here. Taiwan are competing in windsurfing. We’re bringing young people into sailing, via windsurfing and this is something that has been totally ignored. The global reach, accessibility and participation in windsurfing is unrivalled and a key Olympic principle.

I think the Olympics is the dream of every young kid, to take that away is just a tragic blow. Let’s face it, sailing around in 470 dinghies isn’t very exciting either, but they do it because of the possibility and dream of going to the Olympics.

Our position is that we’re hoping windsurfing is going to be in Brazil in 2016, that’s our position today and we’re going to try and push that.

With the law suit, they came to us to ask for funds and we refused. With a business in kitesurfing too, to be honest it made no sense for me to spend company money doing this. But as I said, from a very personal view I am definitely supporting windsurfing.”

Kitesurfing 

Kitesurfing is a fantastic and exciting sport, the brilliant thing about it is it’s portability. It’s a fantastic travel sport, you’ll see the marketing for most companies is beautiful pictures of islands and palm trees because you can put your kite in your back pack, your board under your arm and jump on an aeroplane and away you go. That is the beauty of kitesurfing. It has huge advantages compared to sailing sports which have so much equipment to carry around.”

Kitesurfing in the Olympics will not be one design, it will be a box rule allowing for competitors to use a range or equipment including custom gear.  

“Nobody has quite figured this out yet, how it’s going to work. It will become an arms race, everybody will be looking to have the fastest equipment. The development and evolution will speed up dramatically, we see this already. Already the cost of boards, to participate in kite racing, are costing more than windsurfing boards. Plus it goes against the equal equipment sailor on sailor principle of ISAF and the Olympics.

When we started out with this, one of the commitments we made to ISAF is that we would have product distributed worldwide and available to everybody. A structure is in place to supply one design equipment to the class athletes and sailors on a global scale.”

Legal Action

“The legal action is a judicial review of the procedure, it basically calls into question whether ISAF have followed all the necessary protocol and procedures in reaching this decision. This is what the judge in the court is going to be asked to determine, it’s not to say that it’s a good decision or a bad decision, it’s whether the decision was taken correctly. I think the decision to take the judicial review was correct as at least the truth will come out. It’s not costing the class anything, the lawyer is handling this on a no win, no fee basis which I think gives you some idea of how confident the lawyers are.”

Refer to the press release published by the RS:X class which is very detailed and lays out the crux of the whole argument.

Click this link to go to the full press release from the RS:X class. 

On the next page, take a moment to acknowledge the huge success of the RS:X medalists.

Getting to Gold

Dorian van Rijsselberghe. © onEdition

I’m quietly satisfied. We always believed in what Dorian could do and how he could do it. About a month out, from the Games, I said to him if you sail to the best of your ability you’ll smash the field or if you have an average regatta you’re going to be fighting for the medals with the other guys. The way the package came together, I could feel Dorian was starting to come into his own and feel comfortable with where we were at.

We still had the equipment that was delivered to us, we had to go through and analyse that, making sure we were happy with our equipment. We got through that, then we had to finalise the details. We had a nice light wind session towards the end of last week,  which just put the finishing touches to the package and then we had to make sure we had enough rest and stayed sharp. Then Dorian just brought it on the whole week, the guys didn’t really have an answer to anything.

There’s been moments of brilliance you’ve seen from Dorian over the last few years, you’ve always seen seven races of brilliance, now he’s just done nine races of brilliance. That’s really what the difference was, no mistakes, he didn’t put a foot wrong. It was his week to potentially loose if it didn’t go well, but he just sailed out of his skin. If you look at him, he’s cool, calm and collected, he kept the focus the whole time, never dropped the ball and always came back from a decision that wasn’t quite correct.

That’s his character, that’s his nature, he’s a fighter and he’s a winner. 

Aaron McIntosh racing in Sydney in the 2000 Olympic Games. ©Nick Wilson/ALLSPORT

The Medal Race

The medal race, let’s see how we go, we’re going to have a crowd on the Nothe and it’s a place that we’ve done quite a bit of training and an area we’re comfortable in, so it would be nice to do really well in the medal race, although it doesn’t really matter at this stage. One last blast!

Kitesurfing?

With the relationship Dorian and I have created, I am sure we will do something together. Whether that’s in windsurfing, or kitesurfing, or whether it’s something else. Same shit, different basket. All the same principles apply, it’s a yacht race, It’s still understanding the equipment, getting yourself around the race course so it’s a possiblity. It’s too hasting to make a concrete decision at the moment, but we will have a lot of fun playing around with kitesurfing in the near future that’s for sure.

How ‘We’ Work Together

Like any athlete theirs a support network around them and I’m the closest to Dorian within the ‘we’. But we have the technical support we get too, the team manager, the logistics, the people that organise the intricate details and logistics. They’re all part of what we’re doing. In ‘we’ you can also include Zac (Plasvic of Canada, who is in 8th position going into the medal race) and JP (Tobin of New Zealand, currently in 7th position) they’ve been a huge part of what we’ve been doing. We set a plan and we managed to execute it nicely. We did the work and we had fun doing it, and I’ve always said when you do that the results will come.

Aaron and Dorian, having fun as always. © Richard Langdon

We’ve worked together for four years, over this time the team has grown and our relationship has strengthened. Whether Dorian needs me all the time or not, I’m his sounding board. If he wants to know something I’ll let him know what I think, I think my opinion is regarded well in his eyes. But he’s still his own person, he has to make his own decisions. Occasionally we beg to differ, but that’s it whatever his opinion is, is his opinion and we roll with it. I know there’s times he’s gone out to prove himself right and he hasn’t come unstuck too much!

Check out the other coverage today:

Nick Dempsey Interview

RS:X and Boards on RYA TV

Full women’s results.

Full men’s results.

Dorian built up such a lead on previous days, leaving the others to focus on silver even mid way through the competition. But it was with the most dominant race of the whole games, pulling out a lead of over three minutes over the next sailor, that Dorian officially took gold. It surely shows the dominance of the young Dutchman that he did not need to complete the final race today, and just needs to enter to medal race to win.

At only 23 years of age, although this may well be the last time windsurfing is in the Olympics it does not look like it will be the end for this Olympian. Kiters, watch out!

Dorian van Rijsselberghe. © Boards Magazine / Adam Duckworth

Some words from the man himself, gold medalist Dorian van Rijsselberghe:

Dorian and Aaron

“Yeah,  I had a really good first race. Couldn’t have been any better, I got a big gain on the front, I was ahead of some of the other top guys, unfortunately they didn’t do as well as they should have done. So I got the points that I needed and that was it!

Second race, I pulled out. I felt I was in the way for the other guys, if I were in their shoes I would be telling me to bugger off!

Yes, I’ve cefinitely won! Even in the medal race I could cruise, but I’m not going to. I’m just going to try and have a good race. There should be a nice breeze, so why not.

It was always the dream to win an Olympic gold medal, and now the dream has come true.

This is pretty special, so another Olympic campaign would be nice. If it’s in kiting then so be it.”

Tomorrow Boards will bring you a run down of the men’s and women’s racing going into the medal race, along with a full interview with Nick Dempsey and coach of Dorian, Aaron McIntosh.

Also tomorrow RS:X will be discussed on the RYA TV Channel, with myself (Amy Carter) and Penny Clark. Tune in tomorrow morning for further info!

Today’s other coverage: 

Bryony Shaw Interview

Ben Ainslie Interview

Day Five Gallery

Full women’s results. 

Full men’s results. 

Bryony Shaw around the gybe back, Marina of Spain chasing

In the women’s fleet, after a fantastic day Lee of Israel has closed the gap on Marina iof Spain. Marina still leads, but taking a third and seventh position today she is now just three points ahead of Lee. Lee had an outstanding day on the Nothe course, as did Olha who is in third place overall. Tuuli of Finland is in fourth place overall, with 32 points five ahead of Olha. This puts first and second very close but with a significant lead over third and fourth. Whereas Zofia of Poland and Moanna of Germany are nipping at the heels of Olha, with 33 and 34 points respectively. Bryony Shaw is currently in 7th place, for Bryony now a top five result is realistic and Bryony is sure to be on form tomorrow in the lighter winds.

Full women’s results. 

RS:X men

The men’s races were run today in approx 12-14knots of wind on a flat Portland Harbour.  Dorian lead from beginning to end in the first race, stretching out a lead of over one minute over Nick Dempsey in second. Nick was sixth to the first upwind mark, but then went on a charge making up place after place on each run. Byron of Greece was on form again, finishing third. The second race saw a shake up at the top, with Toni of Germany taking top honours. Nick was firmly in second before taking a risk to overtake Toni, which backfired a little and allowed Dorian to just overtake him on the final beat. Read more about this in Nick’s interview about today’s racing.

This leaves Dorian in a more than commanding position overall, leading Nick in second by a massive fifteen points. Dorian has nine, with Nick joint on points with Toni, both on 24 but Nick ahead on count back. Just behind these two is Poland on 29, before a big gap to JP Tobin of New Zealand who has 48 points. The battle is on, all sailors wanting to put themselves into a good position going into the medal race.

Full men’s results. 

The action kicks off tomorrow at 12.00 with the women’s two races on the Portland Harbour course, before then men head out for two of their own at 14.00.

Other coverage today:

Interview with Nick Dempsey

Messages of support

Bryony Shaw report

Drama for the women and race information