BRYONY Shaw had to dig deep into her resources of self-belief as she became Team GB's latest sailing success story at the Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the women's RS:X event yesterday.
The 25-year-old arrived in Qingdao as one of the leading contenders in the windsurfing competition after winning the Olympic test event last year but appeared to be out of the running after a run of mediocre results in the middle of the regatta inclu
ding a disqualification.
But Shaw hauled herself back into contention with top-three finishes in her last three preliminary races and finished second in yesterday's medal race to make history as Britain's first women's windsurfing medallist.
Italy's Alessandra Sensini won the race to take the silver while local favourite Yin Jian came home third to give China its first ever sailing gold.
"I'm really, really happy. I came here wanting a medal and I knew that I had the ability," said Shaw.
"I started off with a conservative attitude and I think it paid off in the end.
Having won the test event last year, I knew that I could perform on these waters and to get the bronze medal, I'm just over the moon."
There was a moment of alarm for Shaw in the medal race when she and Spain's Marina Alabau touched while rounding a mark but the Briton claimed that she was never worried about being penalised.
While there were celebrations for Shaw, there was despair for Nick Dempsey as he narrowly missed out in the men's RS:X event after finishing seventh in the medal race to drop from second to fourth in the standings.
The Athens bronze medallist entered the medal race with gold medal aspirations, trailing one point behind leader Julien Bontemps of France and level with Tom Ashley of New Zealand, but struggled in the shortened race which lasted less than 20 minutes.
Ashley finished third to take gold, Bontemps claimed silver by finishing fourth and Israel's Shahar Zubari came in second to pip Dempsey by two points for bronze.
"It was all pretty close going into the first beat and I knew exactly where I had to be but with the race being just one lap, it was all a bit short and a bit rushed," he said. "Because it was so close, you had to go for it. I went for it and I got punished a little bit.
"You only had to be slightly out of contention round the first mark and that's the race over really. It's just a shame it was one lap."
Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson will look to add to Britain's five-medal sailing showing in the conclusion of the Star class today. The pair lie second in the overall standings, just two points behind leaders Sweden heading into the medal race.
Percy and Simpson have 35 points, 16 ahead of fourth-placed France and needing only to finish in the top eight to clinch Britain's sixth sailing medal.
Leigh McMillan and Will Howden finished second, third and 12th to qualify for the Tornado medal race but are out of contention for medals in ninth place. Spain's Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz have a three-point lead over Australia after placing seventh, first and eighth yesterday.
The full article contains 557 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
