SAILING: Cousins Lisa Darmanin and Jason Waterhouse have won Australia’s second medal of the day after winning silver in the Nacra 17 event at Guanabara Bay.
Sitting in fourth prior to the decisive medal race, the Aussie duo jumped two places up the rankings after they crossed the line in second in the final race of the regatta behind New Zealand.
The Sydneysiders were pipped for the gold medal by the Argentineans by a single point after the crew of Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Sarouli finished the medal race in sixth as Austria's Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank won the bronze.
Darmanin and Waterhouse started out the regatta in fine form winning two of the first four races and placing fourth and fifth in the other two.
They let the rest of the crews back into the medals later in the regatta but their jubilation at the finish line highlighted just how much the silver medal means to the Olympic debutants.
Darmanin said the feeling of being so close to a gold medal as “a little bitter sweet” but surreal that the cousins are in such elite company.
“It’s a little bit bittersweet I’m not going to lie,” she said. “We really wanted that gold but we sailed an incredible medal race, I don’t think we could have done much more out there.
“To come home silver medallists … I mean the Aussies obviously have a great multi-hull background and they’re all legends to us and they’re all silver medallists. So to be part of that group now is a bit surreal.”
Waterhouse described Santiago Lange, a veteran of six Olympic Games, as a legend who sailed a great last race.
“That guy [Lange]is a living legend in our sport; he has paid his dues and is 56 years old and has four Olympic medals. Good on him; he’s a great man.
“When we crossed the line I was just so relieved that we secured a medal. I was so proud of Lisa and I, on this stage at the Olympics.
“We just sat there for a while and thought ‘okay, we have won a medal but what colour is it going to be, then all of a sudden ‘Santi’ [Lange] is coming through, the Argentinians were doing really well and we were cheering on the Italians to get past them.
“But at the end of the day he sailed a great race.”
Waterhouse said the start of the final race, when they began on the starboard compared to their competitors, was their best for four years.
“I said to Lisa ‘we’ve got to get down there and cause some issues down here otherwise they’re going to cross us and beat us’. We managed to get that penalty on a few of our competitors which was good and that was probably the best race I’ve started in the last four years.”
When asked what’s next for the quickly emerging youngsters of the sailing fraternity, Waterhouse quipped:
“Tokyo right. That’s next!
Then he steadied: “Our family is here and they have been cheering us on since the start so we will celebrate with them and cheer on our fellow Aussies tomorrow who will be competing … and give Tom Burton a big hug for his amazing result too.”
