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Emma Wilson had to settle for a second consecutive Olympic bronze medal after falling away dramatically in the women’s windsurfing final off the coast of Marseille on Saturday.
The 25-year-old had dominated the qualification process, winning eight of the 14 races, and had been a heavy favourite to claim an elusive first major title.
But despite holding a narrow lead at the halfway stage, Wilson finished well behind eventual winner Marta Maggetti of Italy, with Israel’s Sharon Kantor taking silver.
The final had been held over from Friday due to light winds, and Wilson had to watch as her rivals got to grip with the conditions during the quarter-finals and semi-finals that immediately preceded the medal shoot-out.
Wilson, whose mother Penny also represented Team GB in windsurfing at the Olympics, has dominated her discipline since Tokyo, but has fallen foul of a new rule designed to increase the jeopardy in her class, and which essentially means qualifying results are wiped out for the final showdown.
Had the previous Olympic rules still been in place – as they for every other sailing class bar the brand new kitesurfing discipline in Marseille – she would have gone into the final race secure in the knowledge that she had already sealed her gold medal.
Maggetti had finished in third place in the qualifying standings and had only finished above Wilson in one of the 14 races.
Wilson’s team-mate Sam Sills, who qualified for the quarter-finals in fifth place, battled through to the semi-finals where he finished fourth and last and did not advance to the final.
