One Person Dinghy (Laser Radial), Women

Since 2014 the top two sailors in this class had been Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands and Denmark’s Ann-Marie Rindom. Bouwmeester was the defending gold medallist while Rindom had won the bronze medal at Rio in 2016. Bouwmeester was World Champion in 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2020, and was runner-up in 2015 and 2018-19. Rindom had won the Worlds in 2015 and 2019 and won bronze medals at Worlds in 2016 and 2018. The battle for gold in Enoshima was expected to be between these two.

This was the largest class in Tokyo sailing with 44 sailors coming to the start line. Bouwmeester and Rindom got off to slow starts and after four races stood fifth and third, respectively. Rindom moved into the lead after the sixth race although she had not won a race but had consistent top finishes. After the eighth race, which Rindom finally won, Bouwmeester was in seventh place, partly due to a black flag disqualification in race seven, but she won the ninth race and moved up to second behind Rindom, who had a commanding lead by then. Still in medal contention were Belgian Emma Plasschaert and Sweden’s Josefin Olsson, who were third and fourth, respectively.

In the 10th race Rindom did not finish and her last place points caused her to have to count her only earlier poor finish. She still led but Bouwmeester had closed the gap and Olsson was third going into the medal race. Olsson won the medal race to win the silver medal, pushing Bouwmeester, who placed sixth, back to bronze as Plasschaert missed the podium. Rindom was seventh in the medal race but still held on for the gold medal. She struggled when her self-bailer did not work well as it was clogged with seaweed.

Bouwmeester completed a full set of medals in the event, as she had won silver at London in 2012 in addition to her gold medal at Rio. Rindom’s gold medal was the first for Denmark in this event, and their second in women’s sailing, as Kristine Roug had won gold in the one-person dinghy when it was raced in the Europe class in 1996.