Olympics-Sailing-Austrian duo win mixed dinghy gold, beating Japan and Sweden

By Alexander Smith

MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) -Austria's Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr did enough in their medal race on Thursday to clinch Olympic gold in the mixed dinghy event after fighting their way up from the back of the fleet.

After a brief pause while they waited for the points tally to be confirmed by officials, the Austrian duo celebrated in the traditional way by capsizing their 470 dinghy and standing on its upturned white hull, waving their country's flag.

Japan's Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka stayed near the front of the pack throughout in the double-points finale to secure silver, while Anton Dahlberg and Lovisa Karlsson of Sweden picked up bronze, with Spain's Jordi Xammar Hernandez and Nora Brugman getting pushed back into fourth overall.

There were celebrations for the Japanese and Swedish crews as they savoured their moment with their respective coaches.

The wind was enough for the medal race to start without delay, with shifts in the breeze testing the crews as they had to choose a favoured side of the course.

Although the French duo of Camille Lecointre and Jeremie Mion won the medal race, it was not enough for the locals to get into the medals, leaving them in sixth place overall.

(Reporting by Alexander Smith; Editing by Ken Ferris and Clare Fallon)