Monday, August 18, 2008 - 7:45 PM

Women's pair Tessa Parkinson and Elise Rechichi have delivered Australia its second sailing gold medal of the day with victory in the 470 class at Qingdao.

Parkinson and Rechichi, the youngest members of Australia's sailing team, made it an Australian sweep of the 470 class after men's pair Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page won their medal race earlier in the day.

The Australian girls took a huge lead into the medal race over their nearest rivals, Dutch pair Marcelien de Koning and Lobke Berkhout.

De Koning and Berkhout won silver and Brazil's Fernanda Oliveira and Isabel Swan claimed bronze.

The only way Parkinson and Rechichi could have lost their grip on gold was if they finished last in the final race and the Dutch pair claimed victory.

But the Brazilian pair won the final race to guarantee Australia gold after they coasted home to finish ninth.

The Australian pair got their medal race tactics right by herding the Dutch out wide on the course in the early skirmishes, relegating their rivals to last at the first mark.

The Dutch were forced to play catch-up and although they steadily worked their way past some stragglers, their chance of gold had gone.

Rechichi said they planned to hook up with Wilmot and Page and party.

"When we crossed the finish line we were screaming and crying and shouting. We're so stunned we cannot stop laughing," she said.

"We're very excited. we're going to the find the boys (Wilmot and Page) and our families and we'll go party."

Parkinson and Rechichi's gold handed Australia its third gold medal on day 10, together with the men's 470 gold and Emma Snowsill's triathlon gold medal.

The women's win took Australia's gold medal tally to 11 so far in Beijing.

Men's gold


Wilmot and Page went into the race with the gold virtually guaranteed, needing only to complete the course as they entered sitting in first place on 42 points, 22 ahead of nearest rival the Netherlands.

The pair held such an advantage after their 10-race opening series that they only had to make a genuine attempt to start the medal race to be assured of gold under racing rules.

They won the title in style, though, taking out the medal race.

Britain's Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield won silver and France's Nicolas Charbonnier and Olivier Bausset took bronze.

Wilmot, 28, and Page, 36, announced earlier this year they would retire from 470 dinghy sailing after the Beijing Games.

Page did leave the door open for a 2012 campaign, but said his first priority was to head for the dining hall.

"We're going to have a nice buffet with lots of food. We plan on getting fat and as far as another Olympics go, we'll have to wait and see," Page told reporters.

Consistency throughout the regatta had put the triple world champions in a commanding position. They failed to win one of the 10 preliminary races but had seven top-five placings.

"Today we were pretty relaxed and we were joking around," Wilmot said. "We saw all the boats behind us and we thought 'we might as well win our only Olympic medal race'".