Rio 2016: Silver for Dempsey as Scott continues tradition

Great Britain's Nick Dempsey has become the most decorated men's Olympic windsurfer of all time after wrapping up silver at Rio 2016.
Great Britain's Giles Scott poses with a flag at the Maria da Gloria on the ninth day of the Rio Olympics Games, Brazil. (Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)Great Britain's Giles Scott poses with a flag at the Maria da Gloria on the ninth day of the Rio Olympics Games, Brazil. (Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)
Great Britain's Giles Scott poses with a flag at the Maria da Gloria on the ninth day of the Rio Olympics Games, Brazil. (Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)

A day after turning 36, the most experienced member of the British sailing team secured their first medal of the regatta in Brazil.

Impressive displays meant Dempsey merely needed to see through yesterday’s double-point men’s RS:X medal race to secure silver, with Holland’s Dorian van Rijsselberghe already out of reach at the top.

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It was the same one-two as four years ago and the five-time Olympian ended the regatta with a fourth-place finish on the stunning Pao de Acucar course.

Dempsey was beaming after adding silver to his bronze from Athens 2004 and second place at London 2012, seeing him enter the record books as the most decorated men’s Olympic windsurfer ever.

“It is amazing,” he said after making history in Rio de Janeiro. “It is awesome, something I am incredibly proud of.

“It has been a long time, I have been working for a long time, and it is very hard to stay at the top for that long.”

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Dempsey has regularly said he would bow out after Rio 2016 but – fuelled by the afterglow that comes with a podium finish – suggested there was a slight chance he could continue onto Tokyo.

“I am not sure I can do it again,” the 36-year-old said. “I would love to if I could.”

Meanwhile, Giles Scott has all but secured Olympic gold with a race to spare, continuing Great Britain’s domination of the Finn class.

Few debutants arrived at Rio 2016 shouldering as much expectation as the 29-year-old, who was overwhelming favourite with bookmakers having failed to win just two regattas in this Olympic cycle, getting silver in those two events. Britain first won a gold in this event in Sydney and through Ben Ainslie ever since have dominated.

The result is subject to protest, and Scott will still have to sail in tomorrow’s medal race, but an eighth and second yesterday has made him uncatchable in the double-point finale.