MARSEILLE, France — Former Old Dominion sailor Stephanie Roble and her teammate Maggie Shea took 10th place Thursday morning at the Paris Olympics in the women's skiff medal race from Marseille. They also finished 10th overall with 142 points. On Wednesday, they were the only American women in the top 20 to advance to Thursday's medal round.
Spain and the Netherlands won gold medals in the men’s and women’s skiffs respectively. Fickle winds forced medal races for the skiffs known as 49er and 49erFX — powerful, bird-like two person boats— to be abandoned or rescheduled Thursday in Marseille.
On Friday, the women’s race started on time just after noon and gave a wild finish to the Dutch team of Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz, who had entered it with the second-best score.
They thought they had cruised past the finish line but hadn’t realized the race committee had changed the course, and the line was on the other side of the committee boat. They quickly corrected course and crossed the right line, but lost time doing so. They looked puzzled and covered their faces for a few tense minutes before officials determined they had enough for gold anyway.
