A Reminder of the 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games
T
he waters of Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour played host to ten exhilarating sailing events during the London 2012 Olympic Games in July and August and a further three events during the Paralympics in September. As far as home supporters were concerned, pride of place went to Ben Ainslie, who in typical battling fashion in the Finn Class, fought his way to his fourth gold medal in successive Games to become the most decorated sailor in Olympic history. Team GB also added four silver medals, marking the fourth consecutive Olympic Games that Britain had collected at least five medals. Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson’s silver medal in the Star was followed by a similar result for Nick Dempsey in the RS:X Windsurfing. Britain’s haul was complete with silvers to Olympic debutants Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell in the Men’s 470 and for Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark in the Women’s 470. The Paralympics were no less thrilling or enthralling, as Britain entered racing having not won a medal since sailing joined the full Paralympic Games programme at Sydney 2000. All that was to change, however, with two medals on the final day. Helena Lucas – the only woman in the fleet – won gold in the 2.4-metre one-person keelboat event while Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell claimed bronze in the SKUD two- person keelboat. We are very proud that the British Sailing Team continue to use us as their sailing base.
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