Pavlos Kagialias and Panagiotis Mantis have won Greece's 5th medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The Greek duo finished today's medal race of the Men's 470 Sailing event in 10th place (3rd overall), one position behind Australia, to earn Greece's 2nd BRONZE medal at the Rio games.
Kagialias & Mantis mathematically secured at minimum a bronze medal after the conclusion of the 10 preliminary races. The Greek team was 2nd overall going into today's medal race with 38 point deductions and looked to finish ahead of the Australians (started in 3rd overall) to hold onto their silver medal. Croatia had a comfortable lead going into today's race as the first ranked team.
The Greek and Australian boats were neck and neck throughout the whole race as both sat in 9th and 10th place. In the final leg, the Greek team suffered a slight fall which gave the Australians a decisive advantage at the finish line. Despite finishing in 10th place in the medal race, Greece earned the bronze medal (3rd overall) while Australia won silver and Croatia won gold.
Greece has a rich history in the sport, however this is Greece's first medal in Sailing since the Athens 2004 Olympics. There, Sofia Bekatoriou & Emilia Tsoulfa won the Gold medal in the Women's 470 event while Nikos Kaklamanakis won the silver medal in the Men's Sailboard event.
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