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One Person Heavyweight Dinghy (Finn), Men

Date29 July – 5 August 2012
StatusOlympic
LocationWeymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, Isle of Portland
Participants24 from 24 countries
FormatPoints awarded for placement in each race. Best 8 of 9 scores to count for N. N count double.

Ben Ainslie came to Weymouth looking for a fifth consecutive sailing medal, and his fourth consecutive gold. He had won this event in 2004 and 2008, and was Laser class champion at Sydney in 2000, after placing second in that class in 1996. But he had a tense battle over five days with 2006 and 2009 Finn World Champion Jonas Høgh Christensen of Denmark.

Høgh Christensen opened up on the first day by winning both races, with Ainslie second. He defeated Ainslie twice more on the second day, and then had another race win on day three. Ainslie finished only third and fourth in day three but moved into second place overall, as he moved ahead of France’s Jonathan Lobert. Ainslie won the first race of day four and then defeated Høgh Christensen again in the second race on that day, although the Dane and Dutchman Pieter-Jan Postma accused him of touching a mark near the end, costing him a penalty turn. On the final day, Høgh Christensen opened his lead over Ainslie to four, but Ainslie won the second race of the day to move ahead before the medal race. In the medal race, Ainslie focused only on staying ahead of Høgh Christensen, and did so, placing ninth to the Dane’s 10th, assuring himself of a fourth straight gold medal. Lobert won the medal race to move ahead of Postma and take the bronze medal. Postma actually challenged for the top spot in the medal race, but at the last buoy he hit the camera on another boat, forcing him to take a penalty lap and dropping him off the podium.

Ainslie equaled the feat of another Dane, Paul Elvstrøm, who won the Finn class in 1952-60. Elvstrøm also won the one-person dinghy in 1948, but the boat was slightly different, racing in the Firefly that year, however, he is usually credited with four straight gold medals in the same class. Only Ainslie and Elvstrøm have won four gold medals in sailing, and Ainslie’s fifth sailing medal equaled the most in the sport, held by Brazil’s pair of Robert Scheidt, who had earlier achieved this in London, and Torben Grael.

PosBoatNOCPointsRace 1Race 2Race 3Race 4Race 5Race 6Race 7Race 8Race 9Race 10Medal Race
1Ben AinslieGBR462261243136118Gold
2Jonas Høgh ChristensenDEN46112712845320Silver
3Jonathan LobertFRA49944267510372Bronze
4Pieter-Jan PostmaNED52510342013221210
5Ivan Kljaković-GašpićCRO55337956374108
6Vasilij ŽbogarSLO63865385962614
7Daniel SlaterNZL837111617116158144
8Rafael TrujilloESP8612121123741511346
9Daniel BirgmarkSWE9017513199101210812
10Tapio NirkkoFIN9211138531245151716
11Deniss KarpakEST8514910111117131111
12Zach RaileyUSA9710151217281281219
13Brendan CaseyAUS1062571514101719995
14Giannis MittakisGRE108421982510201979
15Greg DouglasCAN13716241513121813172012
16Piotr KulaPOL148[25]161716132025111416
17Eduard SkornyakovRUS1531382215192216162222
18Alican KaynarTUR15418141818251411221620
19Oleksiy BorysovUKR160.621211919151923141718
20Jorge ZarifBRA16115201420162414211921
21Michael MaierCZE16219182110182318202315
22Filippo BaldassariITA16420232421142117181813
23Florian RaudaschlAUT1796192324251521242423
24Gong LeiCHN19025172022251622232124