TOKYO – Italian sailors Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti crossed the line at Enoshima Yacht Harbour in sixth position behind the medal race winners Santiago Raul Lange and Cecilia Carranza Sarol as well as Denmark and the USA, who finished second and third respectively. Argentina, Denmark and the USA finished with total scores of 75, 66 and 93. This meant that the top three in the medal race finished in seventh, fourth and ninth respectively overall.The Italian sailors finished in sixth, scoring 12 points, which were enough for them to take the gold medal.
Tita and Banti’s win was Italy’s fourth Olympic gold medal in sailing and the country’s first since Alessandra Sensini won gold in the mistral women in 2000.
“It’s obviously pretty unreal because halfway through the race it looked pretty bad for us,” explained Tita about winning the gold medal. “We just managed to come back somehow, we found one or two lucky shifts, and the others didn’t have a good enough race to beat us in the end. But it was a big fight, and the result needs to sink in.”
Great Britain’s John Gimson and Anna Burnet’s fifth place in the medal race gave them 10 points for an overall total of 45 and the silver medal.
Ruggero Tita, 29yo from Rovereto and Caterina Banti, 34yo from Rome were all but assured a gold or silver medal in the event, even before the race began, if they finished the race and were not disqualified because they had a 24-point lead over third-placed Germany and 20 points was the most that could be awarded.
