Kiran Badloe has cruised to Olympic gold in the men's windsurfing RS:X class on Saturday with Thomas Goyard taking silver as a disqualification cost Italy's Mattia Camboni the bronze, which went to China's Kun Bi.
With the recently crowned world champion Badloe coming into the final race holding an unassailable lead, Camboni, Goyard and Poland's Piotr Myszka were scrapping for the silver and bronze medals.
After a blazing opening, Camboni was approached by a dinghy containing World Sailing officials and told he had been kicked out of the medal race due to infractions at the start.
Goyard and Myszka were also disqualified, all three incurring a 22-point penalty which was added to their overall score from the 10 opening races.
Goyard hung on to second place and Bi jumped from fifth to third.
"It's unreal (to be an Olympic champion), I think it's going to sink in a bit more over the next couple of hours, but this feeling is amazing, it's pretty special to me," Badloe told reporters.
In the women's race, Lu Yungxiu of China held off a fierce challenge to win gold, edging out 2016 Olympic champion Charline Picon of France and Britain's Emma Wilson.
Lu had a four-point advantage over Wilson going into the race with Picon two points further back, so all that was left to be decided was the medals.
After a delayed start due to the lack of wind, 36-year-old Picon attacked and Lu struggled to keep up as she found herself slipping down the field.
Despite Picon's lead, Lu knew that a top-four finish would be enough as long as Wilson did not win, and she recovered by the midpoint of the race, crossing the line third behind Picon and Wilson.
Australian Associated Press
