Sarah Newberry and John Casey of the United States capped a fantastic regatta in the intriguing Nacra 17 event as they finished fifth in the final medal race to win gold by five points.

Finishing with silver was Sarah Streater and Matthew Whitehead of the United States while compatriots Taylor Reiss and Sarah Lihan won bronze.

"Throughout the event we were focused on communication," said Newberry.

"What carried us through was communicating about what was happening on the boat immediately on the race course, and in the end the ability to explain the situation.

"I'm sure at the highest end of sailing, especially when you're a woman and a man you don't always speak the same language."

In the women's 470, Brazil's Fernanda Oliveira and Ana Luiza Barbachuan captured gold by 15 points ahead of the Chinese teams with Xiaoli Wang and Xufeng Huang and Xiaomei Xu and Chunyan Yu, who claimed silver and bronze respectively.

Like so many Brazilian sailors, Oliveira is now eager to compete for Olympic gold in her home country in Rio 2016.

"It starts easier for us, but we don't live in Rio, so we need to go there often to train and we have a lot of work to do," she said.

"It's a difficult place to race and the conditions are special."

Americans Stuart McNay and David Hughes finished strongly in the Men's 470 medal race as their second place result in the final race granted them the gold.

The silver medal went to Matthias Schmid and Floran Reichstaedter of Austria with compatriots David Bargehr and Lucas Maher claiming bronze.


In the 49er and, Fred Strammer and Zach Brown of America edged compatriots Ryan Pesch and Trevor Burd for the gold medal with Sebastian Ostling and Kalle Torlen of Sweden taking bronze.

The 49er FX medal race series saw Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze of Brazil winning the first medal race with Americans Anna Tunnicliffe and Molly Vandemoer taking silver and their compatriots Kristen Lane and Molly Carapiet the bronze.

Sweden's Jesper Stalheim collected gold in the Laser class with Estonia's Karl-Martin Rammo taking silver and Charlie Buckingham of the United States given bronze.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
January 2013: All eyes on new Olympic class events as ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami gets underway