Olympics: Keiju Okada, Miho Yoshioka win mixed dinghy sailing silver for Japan
Source: The Mainichi
MARSEILLE, France (Kyodo) — The Japanese mixed dinghy duo of Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka won sailing silver at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, finishing third in the ultimate “medal race” to jump up one place in the standings.
The silver is only Japan’s third Olympic sailing medal and its first since a bronze in the men’s 470 class in Athens 20 years ago.
“I’m happy, if a little tired,” said Okada. “I wanted to run our own race in the medal race, so made sure to choose the wind we wanted.”
The Japanese pair, ranked second in the world, started the day on the waters off Marseille Marina third behind Jordi Xammar Hernandez and Nora Brugman Cabot of Spain in the overall standings, but finished 40 seconds and six places ahead in the medal race to relegate the Europeans to fourth.
Anton Dahlberg and Lovisa Karlsson of Sweden also moved past the Spaniards to take bronze.
The Austrian duo of helm Lara Vadlau and crew Lukas Maehr won the gold medal with 38 net points, three fewer than Okada and Yoshioka, with the Swedes finishing on 47.
Okada and Yoshioka, who each finished seventh in the men’s and women’s 470 class at the Tokyo Games, were in contention from the start of the 2024 Games mixed dinghy competition held in the port city of Marseille in southern France.
The 2023 mixed 470 world champions won the first race and then had consecutive second-place results, with third their best result over the remaining six races. The Japanese sailors’ worst finish, a 14th, was struck off as per the scoring system, reducing their equal-best 55 total points to 41 net points.
The original article: belongs to The Mainichi .
