Paul Goodison failed to add to Great Britain’s Olympic sailing medal haul today and admitted: ”I’m just absolutely gutted.”
The 27-year-old, who started his final Laser race just one point away from the bronze medal position, was unable to make up the ground and overhaul Slovenia’s Vasilij Zbogar in a drawn-out race which was postponed twice and abandoned once before eventually going ahead.
Goodison was bitterly disappointed to have missed out on a medal having gone into the race with one eye on a silver.
At one point during the race the Briton was ahead of his rival and it seemed that Team GB would be toasting another medal success on the waters of Athens’ Saronic Gulf.
But Zbogar battled back as Goodison faded in the latter stages, finishing in 17th place with his rival ending up in 13th.
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”I’m just absolutely gutted,” said Goodison. ”To come so close and to go away with nothing is pretty upsetting.
”When I got past the Slovenian guy at the bottom marker I thought that was it, I was really in there and then to miss out is just so disappointing.
”Realistically today I thought I could get a silver medal because there was only five to six points up to second place and in those conditions anything can happen.”
Despite the deflation of missing out on bronze by just five points, Goodison said he will battle back at the next Olympics in Beijing.
”I’ll definitely be back. I just need to go away, take what I can from this experience and then I’ll hopefully come back even stronger,” he said.
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The race nearly did not go ahead due to the light, erratic shifting winds drifting around the Agios Kosmas sailing centre.
Goodison, who coached double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson at the Sydney Olympics, said: ”It was pretty touch and go as to whether the conditions were actually sailable.
”I was really worried that we weren’t going to get a race in and I wasn’t going to get my chance to try and challenge for a medal, so I was obviously really relieved.
”If the race officers had more time on their hands then I’m sure they would have waited for better conditions.
”But as it was we only had a short time span to get the races in so off it went and it was the same for everybody in fairness, so it’s kind of the luck of the draw.”
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Brazil’s Robert Scheidt, who Ben Ainslie beat to gold in the same event in Sydney, clinched the gold medal with Austria’s Andreas Geritzer claiming the silver.
Scheit has won in every competition he has entered this year, and Goodison admitted he hopes the Brazilian switches classes for China in four years’ time.
”He’s pretty amazing really. I take my hat off to him, he’s done a great job again,” Goodison said.
”I think he’ll be moving onto something else next time thank goodness.”
Elsewhere today, Star hopefuls Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell had an expensive day on the temperamental Athens coast, finishing races three and four of their 11-race series 12th and ninth respectively.
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The duo failed to recover from a slow start in race three, while race four was a stark contrast, the British pair losing wind in the final stretch having been in third place.
The results mean Percy - a Sydney Finn gold medallist - and Mitchell lie in eighth place after four races.
In the 49er class the signs are encouraging for Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks, who put in two consistent performances in their two races, following up an eighth-place finish with a second in race 11 of the 16-race series.
The Team GB pair now lie in the bronze medal position but only six points away from leaders Iker Martinez and Xavier Fernandez of Spain.