Shaw digs deep for bronze but Dempsey falls short

*SAILING

Bryony Shaw lifted Britain's sailing medal tally to five when winning a hard-fought bronze in a windsurfer class in which the host country won its first ever sailing gold medal yesterday.

Nick Dempsey, who already has bronze from Athens, was expected at least to follow suit and was in a position to win gold. But, in a race that was over too quickly for him to recover, he posted a seventh and finished a hugely disappointing fourth overall. A fifth in the final race would have given him a second medal.

"I'm really happy that I did my best," said the 25-year old Shaw (below), who is already determined to have a second crack in four years time. "The colour of my medal was determined by the way the other girls sailed."

The race was won by the 38-year-old Italian Alessandra Sensini, who added the silver to the gold she won in 2000 and bronzes in 1996 and 2004. She has more sailing medals than any woman in history. But nothing was going to stop Jian Yin, for whom third was enough to secure the top spot.

Shaw, watched by Sir Clive Woodward, had to dig deep on reserves of strength which had been sapped by 10 previous races and a double round of physically pumping the sail. It was brutal. "You are always digging deep," she said afterwards. "It's my job."

Dempsey, who will marry Yngling gold medallist Sarah Ayton in October, said: "You can't get it right all the time. It's difficult when it comes down to one race and one lap. We are getting married, so life's not all bad."

The final medal races are due today for the Tornado catamaran, in which Britain's Leigh McMillan and Will Howden are out of the running. In the Star class, though, there is everything to play for.

Britain's Iain Percy, Finn gold medallist in 2000, and Andrew Simpson are second. Against them are the pair which has led the series almost from day one, Sweden's Freddy Loof and Anders Ekstrom, chasing them are Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada of Brazil and France's Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau.

"We hope we are getting better and we try to keep calm," said Simpson after a tricky final day of three fleet races which netted a first, a second and a sixth. "The only game plan we have for the final race is to win it. If we win the race, we've got gold."

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