Newsroom
Pavlos Kontides finished first overall at the World Championship in Qingdao, but an incident during the opening race of the final day dropped him to second place in the final standings.
Kontides, of Cyprus, acknowledged making a mistake in the first race Saturday that disrupted the fleet. He chose to withdraw from the race voluntarily to avoid potential protests and more severe penalties. The decision cost him his result in that race, and he was assessed a 7-point penalty.
As a result, he ended the event with 12 points, one behind Dutch sailor Wiersema, who took gold with 11. Australia’s Littlewood claimed the bronze with 13 points.
The silver is Kontides’ fifth career medal at a World Championship and comes in his 20th appearance at the event. He previously won silver in 2013 (Oman) and 2022 (Mexico), and gold in 2017 (Split) and 2018 (Aarhus, Denmark).
