22-year-old Cypriot sailor Pavlos Kontides has won the silver medal, Cyprus` first ever medal in Olympic Games.
What a great event it was with thousands watching in Weymouth and the Cypriot flags all over the place and Parikiaki was there to see it.
The final race concluded Monday in Weymouth. Kontides had “locked” the silver medal on Saturday after the completion of ten races. Tom Slingsby of Australia won the gold medal and Rasmus Myrgren of Sweden the bronze.
Kontides secured the silver medal with 59 penalty points, while Slingsby came first with 43 penalty points and Myrgen third with 72 penalty points.
I guess I wrote my name in Cyprus sport in golden letters,” Kontides said. “I guess when I have the silver medal around my neck and be back home, then all the celebrations will start, and I will really understand what I have done.”
Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias congratulated Kontides by telephone Saturday, when the silver medal was assured. Christofias conveyed his gratitude and that of all Cypriots for his “immense success,” an official statement said.
The Cyprus Sport Organization said Kontides’ silver medal “marks a new beginning for Cypriot sport.”
Kontides said on the Cyprus Sailing Federation website that he was inspired by his father, himself a Cypriot sailing champion and former federation chief, to take up the sport at age 9.
His mother, Androulla Kontides, told a TV station: “He’s made us all proud. He’s a talented boy, and we always believed that he could do it.” His brother Karolos told BBC that he was proud of his brother and said that it was Cyprus’s first Olympic medal.
Kontides won two consecutive World Youth Sailing Championships in Kingston Britain in 2007 and Aarhus Denmark in 2008. Kontides` first Olympic Games participation was in Beijing in 2008 where he finished 13th in Men’s Laser. In 2011 he finished 5th in Men’s Sailing Championship and first in Youth Sailing Championship in Hayling Island, while he secured his participation in the London Olympic Games in the 2011 World Sailing Championship in Perth, Australia.
Photos from Weymouth
