MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Israel earned two sailing medals Saturday when Tom Reuveny won gold and Sharon Kantor took home a silver in a new windsurfing class called iQFOiL on Saturday at the Paris Olympics.
Reuveny, 24, and Kantor, 21, added to a long tradition of windsurfing success for their country. Reuveny was coached by Israel’s first gold medalist, Gal Fridman, also a windsurfing champion. The big day in Marseille comes amid the Israel-Hamas war.
“It’s exactly 20 years since (Fridman won) his gold medal and it’s the first Olympics for him as a coach, and first Olympics for me,” a beaming Reuveny said. “So many people died in the last year in Israel, and not just in Israel. I’ve lost a few friends. It’s been dark times and I don’t think it could be any better than this, to hear the anthem on the top of the podium.”
Marta Maggetti, 28, of Italy won gold in the women’s race, and Britain’s Emma Wilson finished third. Grae Morris earned silver in the men’s race, and Luuc van Opzeeland got bronze.
Fridman said the key to Reuveny’s win was his confidence and keeping his cool in changing wind conditions, which have affected the first week of Olympic sailing, even leading to abandoning a windsurfing marathon more than an hour in.
“It’s a mental game,” Fridman said.
The 20-year-old Morris celebrated Australia’s first windsurfing medal since 1992 — and what he called “an epic race” — with cheering fans holding inflatable yellow kangaroos at the beach. The 25-year-old van Opzeeland earned the Netherlands’ second sailing medal in as many days.
Maggetti had to rally for her victory. Wilson, 25, was left sobbing after entering the day ranked first and leading well into the final race.
“I just made a mistake,” said Wilson, who won a bronze in Tokyo and is the daughter of a two-time windsurfing Olympian. “It really hurts.”
Maggetti said the winning move was deciding to take a shorter course by turning before Kantor and Wilson around the upwind mark.
“I’ve been calm all day, taking it step by step,” Maggetti said. “I was able to reason it out. I’m super happy.”
In iQFOiL windsurfing, the sailors fly off the water pushing speeds well above 20 knots (37 kph or 23 mph), the boards lifted by a foil in regattas that last only about 10 minutes.
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.
Only two athletes were guaranteed a medal at the beginning of the day because of their ranking after days of sailing — Wilson and Morris. 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.
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.
Van Opzeeland and Britain’s Sam Sills advanced to the semifinal to face Reuveny and New Zealand’s Josh Armit, with van Opzelaand and Reuveny going into the men’s final.
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