Denmark beat Germany to claim soling gold

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Sydney: Denmark's Jesper Bank denied Germany's Jochen Schuemann a record-equalling fourth Olympic gold medal on Saturday, winning an aggressive duel in the soling keelboat final sail-off on Sydney harbour.

Bank, the soling gold medallist in Barcelona in 1992, held Schuemann out to win 4-3 after a final marked by collisions and multiple protests in the open three-handed keelboat class.

All three of Schuemann's losses in the sail-off came after he was forced to make penalty turns by on-course judges for sailing too near to the Dane's boat and failing to give way.

Schuemann set the tone in the first race of the first-to-four wins final on a spectacular harbour course with the opera house and bridge as a backdrop.

Leading Bank downwind, Schuemann gibed in front of the Dane toforce a collision. Bank crossed the finish line in front as Schuemann completed his 360-degree penalty turn.

Schuemann levelled in the next race and then drew clear with an easy win in race three. But Bank in turn drew level after another infringement by Schuemann, with the process repeated until the boats were tied at 3-3.

The German was again far too aggressive in the final race after letting bank slip into the lead and was penalised twice for bearing down on the Dane's boat.

Schuemann, the Atlanta soling champion, went into the regatta seeking to match the Olympic sailing record of Denmark's Paul Elvstrom, who won four gold medals between 1948 and 1960.

The 46-year-old Berliner also won the soling gold in Seoul in 1988 and the gold medal in the finn dinghy class in Montreal in 1976.

In the bronze medal sail-off, Norway's Herman Horn Johannessen beat Roy Heiner of the Netherlands 3-1.



(c) Reuters Limited.