Brit Goodison claims sailing gold!
19 August 2008 - 12:50
Paul Goodison made up for his Athens heartbreak by winning sailing's Laser class on Tuesday for Great Britain's 13th gold of the Beijing Olympics .
Goodison, fourth in 2004, led going into the medal race and held on to top spot by finishing ahead of Sweden's Rasmus Myrgren, his nearest rival.
Slovenia's Vasilij Zbogar took silver while Italy's Diego Romero was third.
"It just feels unbelievable. It's going to take a while to sink in but wow," said Goodison, 30, from Sheffield.
Goodison's victory secured Britain's third sailing gold of the Beijing Olympics
Ben Ainslie and the crew of Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson won gold for Britain in the Finn and Yngling classes respectively.
Myrgren was the only man who could have prevented Goodison from winning gold.
For that to happen, the Swede had to win and Goodison had to finish last of 10 boats.
Instead it was Myrgren who finished at the back, with Goodison one place ahead of him.
"I really feel for Rasmus," said Goodison. "I think that if the winds here had been a little bit stronger and the racing had been normal then I would have just sailed my race because I would have been more confident that I wasn't going to lose.
"But because the wind was so light and so random, the only way to guarantee winning was to do what I did.
"My heart feels for him, I feel sorry for him, but at the end of the day you have to do what's best for you."
"With conditions so tricky there was only one way to ensure I got gold and that's what I did."
