Going for silver: Cyprus Olympic sailor ranks second

Cypriot sailor Pavlos Kontides remains focused on his target for an Olympic medal, ranking on Friday second after the 7th and 8th race of Men’s One Person Dinghy (Laser) event in the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition.

The 22 year old sailor completed the race with 28 penalty points and lags 5 points behind Australia’s Tom Slingsby, who came first.

According to a Cyprus Olympic Committee (COC) announcement, during the 7th race Kontides was stuck while turning around the buoy and fell from first to 23d. He later ascended to the 12th place, with Slingsby being 15th.

On the 8th race, Kontides came 7th and fell to the second place in the overall ranking.

The London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition runs from 29 July to 12 August and brings together 380 of the world’s best sailors to race on Weymouth Bay.

Sailing made its Olympic debut in 1900 and has appeared at every Olympic Games since 1908.

In 2012 athletes from 63 nations are competing across ten Olympic sailing events.