It had been a long journey for competitors and fans alike for the highly anticipated Tokyo Olympic Games. With such uncertainty in the lead up, it was with great excitement that spectators tuned in from their homes to watch the world’s best athletes take center stage.

For Zhik, this world class event saw many partnered teams crowned with top honours, claiming 4 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze medals. Zhik has strong partnerships with multiple national sailing federations supporting grass roots initiatives and up and coming sailors. Along with this is support for national representative teams and equipping them to achieve top-level results.

Close to home, Australian Matt Wearn in the Men’s Laser continued the country’s dominance in the class following Australians Tom Burton and Tom Slingsby who claimed Gold in Rio 2016 and London 2012. Wearn had a slow start to the regatta but with consistent results following was able to place himself in a gold medal position with a race to spare.

Will Ryan and Mat Belcher in the Men’s 470 proved another winning combination for Australia by finishing the qualifying series with a 20-point lead going into the medal race. Not wanting to lift their foot off the pedal, the duo finished the series strong with a second place to secure themselves the 470 Gold Medal.

In the Women’s Laser Radial, it was tight competition throughout the series. Zhik Team sailors and returning Olympians Anne-Marie Rindom from Denmark and Marit Bouwmeester from Netherlands both claimed medals and secured themselves a spot on the podium. Rindom and Bouwmeester both saw consistent top 10 finishes to keep themselves in the medal contention, but when it came down to the final score five points separated the two with Rindom securing Gold and Bouwmeester rounding out the podium with Bronze.

The Italian team of Ruggero Tita & Caterina Banti had quickly solidified their position in the Nacra17 class around the world after combining forces in 2017. In Tokyo they continued their commanding performance with their worst result being eight place in the 13-race series and claiming Olympic Gold with a 10-point gap to their closest competitors.

In the world of 49er and world-class sailing, the names Peter Burling and Blair Tuke appear regularly and often. The New Zealand duo have for many years asserted their dominance in the 49er class claiming multiple Olympic Medals and World Championships prior to arriving in Tokyo. This year would be a continuation of past competitions seeing all but a few of their results within the top 10. For the dynamic duo, the back-to-back Olympic gold was not to be, with a tremendous third place in the medal racing they finished the series tied for first but moving to second and claiming silver after the tiebreak.

The German 49er team of Erik Heil & Thomas Ploessel were also fierce competitors in the 49er class against Burling and Tuke. Heil & Ploessel notched up multiple podium finishes throughout the series, with the duo who have been together since 2001, claiming a second consecutive Olympic Bronze after a second place finish in the medal race.

The soul of Zhik’s business is a ground up approach to pushing the boundaries with garment technology, which would not be possible without strong partnerships with the world’s best sailors. Zhik is proud to support the world’s top sailors and work closely with them to design the best technical apparel possible.