All week we’d been waiting to see the kiteboarding on TV, but delays and other medal races kept on getting in the way.
When it finally happened, I think a lot of people understood what all the fuss was about. The fact that, in just 10 knots of breeze, these flying boards can speed along at well over 30 knots downwind, is pretty mindblowing. We saw a few high-speed crashes in the men’s semi-finals, a good reminder of just how close to jeopardy these riders are operating.
In the four-rider women’s final, France’s Lauriane Nolot – as winner of the opening series – was already on match point. Her reward for leading the week to that point was two points in the final, and whoever is first to three points takes the gold.
As second qualifier from the week, Aldridge carried one point into the final whereas the other two contenders had come through from the semi-finals with no points to carry through. This would mean Daniela Moroz (USA) or Annelous Lammerts (NED) would need to win three races in the final.
While it’s a complicated system to explain, there is a lot more natural justice in the kite format compared with the more sudden-death, random nature of the single-race shoot-out in the iQFOiL windsurfing.
Ellie Aldridge knew she would need to come out firing on all cylinders if she was to get past Nolot, a rival she had never before beaten in any major championship. Nolot’s bigger weight and great boat speed has made her winner of the past two world titles while Aldridge has frequently made the podium but never taken the gold ahead of Nolot (or Moroz before her when the American used to reign supreme).
The British rider went out for the final on her 21 square metre kite. As the biggest option in the quiver and with the wind in short supply, it seemed like the obvious call. “I got out there though, and I felt a bit overpowered, didn’t feel quite right,” she said. So Aldridge rushed ashore, changed down to the smaller 15 sqm kite and went racing.
Her kite choice made her marginally faster than Nolot and the other two riders. Aldridge narrowly held off Nolot in the first heat, putting her on match point as well. If Britain or France could win the next heat, the gold medal would be settled.
Aldridge was fast out of the start line and led narrowly at the windward mark. Nolot briefly splashed down and fell to fourth place. Aldridge charged away around the two-lap course, crossed the finish line ahead and took the gold. After so many near-misses for the British team, particularly Micky Beckett’s unlucky medal race in the Men’s Dinghy and Gimson and Burnett crossing the start line of the final Nacra 17 catamaran race just a fraction too early, Aldridge dominated her final and executed perfectly.
It looked like British sailing would come home without a gold for the first time since Atlanta 1996, but Aldridge has saved our blushes.
Take a look at the latest from the Olympic Windsurfing and ILCA Dinghy, the Olympic Skiff racing medals, and an interview with the GB Sailing Team!
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