MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Marta Maggetti won gold Saturday in the women’s new windsurfing class called iQFOiL, topping Sharon Kantor and Emma Wilson at the Paris Olympics.
Maggetti, 28, is from Italy, and Kantor, 21, is from Israel. Wilson is the British daughter of a two-time windsurfing Olympian.
In iQFOiL windsurfing, the sailors fly off the water at high speed, the boards lifted by a foil.
Olympic sailing regattas in Marseille started on Sunday. They have been plagued by high heat and fickle winds, which forced the first medal races in the men’s and women’s skiffs to be postponed to Friday.
The windsurfing quarterfinals, semifinals and medal races were all pushed to Saturday. Each race only lasts about 10 minutes or less, with athletes pushing speeds well above 20 knots (37 kph or 23 mph).
Only two athletes were guaranteed a medal at the beginning of the day because of their ranking after days of sailing; Wilson and Grae Morris of Australia. The remaining top nine faced off this way: The athletes ranked four through 10 faced off in a quarterfinal, with the top two advancing to a semifinal against the competitors who began the day in second and third place. The top two finishers in the semi moved on to meet Morris and Wilson respectively.
China’s Zheng Yan and Peru’s Mara Bazo advanced in the first quarterfinal to take on Kantor and Maggetti. Kantor and Maggetti then made it to the final.
The Netherlands’ Luuc van Opzeeland and Britain’s Sam Sills advanced to the semifinal to face Israel’s Tom Reuveny and New Zealand’s Josh Armit, with van Opzelaand and Reuveny going into the men’s final.
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