Qingdao: Pavlos Kontides ultimately took second place in the World Championships after making a mistake in the first race, which led him to voluntarily withdraw to avoid further repercussions.
According to Cyprus News Agency, although he finished the race in first place, Kontides was ultimately ranked second in the World Championship that ended on Saturday in Qingdao, China, due to an incident in the first race of the final day.
As stated, the Cypriot sailor acknowledged a mistake he made during the race, which led to confusion in the fleet, and chose to withdraw in order to avoid possible more serious consequences in the event of protests. He thus forfeited the third race of the competition, was “charged” with the 7 points from the first race, and with a total of 12 points, he is now in second place, behind the Dutch winner Wiersema with 11 points and the bronze medalist Littlewood from Australia with 13 points.
The silver medal in Qingdao is Kontides’ fifth medal in a World Championship, in the 20th World Championship of his career, while he has won two more silver medals, in 2013 in Oman and 2022 in Mexico, as well as two gold medals, in 2017 in Split and 2018 in Aarhus, Denmark, the statement concludes.