Dirty pool? That's where the diving was. In sailing,shadowing is legal,and smart. Tom Slingsby did it to win gold for Australia in this event in London.
So Burton came prepared. At the start,he manouevred deftly so that Stipanovic touched his boat,incurred a penalty and had to sail around the buoy again. You could say Burton took the wind out of his rival's sails. On the beach,those who know about these things rejoiced.
"I'm so glad he sailed an aggressive medal race,"said Peter."I was glad he went after him at the start."
Out there,Burton gave himself a quiet pat on the back.
"The percentage chance of pulling it off was pretty slim,"he said.
"You want it to come off. We see this at many Olympics and other championships. It's quite easy to slow a bloke down. For the one minute I needed it to come off,it was critical. We've had lot of talks last two days about a bit of catch and release:get a penalty and make it back to the start. It was perfection nearly."
Stipanovic was tactful,if not tack-ful,blaming the jury boat for sailing too close rather than Burton.
"It made a wave,"he said."The same jury decide to give me penalty. That was the start of the finish of it."But he said he would not and could not protest.
For Burton now,the chase was on. Stipanovic was last,but he was second-last. The race would last only about 25 minutes,and he had to finish at least third to make up the required points.
knew the conditions did not lend themselves to anything heroic. After the first upwind leg,he saw he was a chance,but saw also that New Zealander Sam Meech was,too. Not daring to look over his shoulder,he sensed rather than saw Stipanovic and was pleased.
"It's pretty shifty out here and I saw that he'd taken some bad angles,off to the side,trying to catch up in one big go,"he said."I didn't really think that was the way to go."
Turning the last buoy to run with the wind,there were three boats in front of him."I needed to pass one,"he said. On the beach,Peter fretted."I thought he'd been a little bit slow downwind all week,"he said."But he pulled it out today."
Almost needless to say,the Lasers take some mastering. Less boat means more sailing,and more on the sailor's head. Typically,Laser sailors are fit,strong - and,well,well-ballasted. When the boat is about to keel one way,throwing your weight around becomes a skill. Changes in design over the years mean that the best sailors look not only to sail downwind,but to surf when and where possible.
Tom flew - sometimes in Lasers,that is almost the literal truth - and hauled in Meech,but even then a rogue gust momentarily went through Lynn's minds.
"We weren't sure of the points,"she said."We thought he'd lost by two."
Her fears were quickly allayed. Peter's heart leapt,as father and sailor."That's one for the books,"he said."It's very difficult to get that number of boats between yourself and your competitor. It's only a very short race. He's done a great job."
On the beach,the Burtons reflected on their long voyage."He's worked so hard over the last eight years for this,"she said."I'm so proud of him."
Burton lost narrowly to Slingsby for selection in London,then also narrowly beat Matt Wearn to be here;he felt all those years of match-racing had prepared him well for the confrontation with Stipanovic.
There were sacrifices. He missed his sister's wedding,and the Rio opening ceremony. There were becalmings. In the first of 10 qualifying races,he finished nowhere."I thought I was nearly out of it,"he said."It was a bad day."
Fortunately,a sailor's worst race is eliminated in the scoring. After race 10,he was guaranteed a medal.
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Then came the wait. This is an occupational hazard. An hour on Monday,then three,then overnight. Sir Francis Drake once waited two entire days for the wind to arrive,so that he could go into battle in Peru,and it worked out all right for him. He started the whole knighthoods-for-sailors phenomenon. In Guanabara Bay,strewn with detritus and riddled with bacteria,the sailors had wanted to avoid catching anything but the wind. Sadly,it would not blow.
But on Tuesday,it did,and for Tom Burton,and for the Australia's whole Olympic team,it was a refreshing change.