Sailing: Here’s a gold medal to share, says Jenny

By SUZANNE MCFADDEN

Dear Jenny Armstrong,
You're a Kiwi right? But you just won a historic gold medal for Australia in your sailing dinghy. We were wondering if you could share your medal with us. We would even settle for half. We could sure do with it. We've been through some rough seas lately.
Yours truly, New Zealand.

Dear New Zealand,
I have no problem with that. I'd be quite happy if you put my gold on your medal tally, too.
Love, Aussie Jenny.

It's true, Jenny Armstrong really said that.

The girl from Dunedin, who just missed a medal for New Zealand at the 1992 Olympics, admitted she still felt like a Kiwi - even if she had to whisper it. Well, she had to - she and crewmate Belinda Stowell had just become the first women to win a sailing gold medal for Australia.

Funny really, because Stowell is from Zimbabwe. And their coach, Victor Kovalenko, is Russian.

But the Australians were not questioning anyone's place of birth on Thursday.

They were too busy basking in the glow of Australia's first golden day at Rushcutter's Bay, when both their 470 women and men topped the fleet.

It was the first time in 28 years that Australia had won a sailing gold.

The double-handed victories brought up Australia's 50th medal of these Games, the most they have ever won.

Armstrong grabbed an Australian flag as she and Stowell crossed the finish line first yesterday in their dinghy nicknamed the Ugly Duckling. But she didn't look quite right inside a green-and-yellow tracksuit back on land.

Her parents, John and Robyn, had flown from Dunedin to see their daughter win gold for someone else.

There they were, two normally parochial Kiwis - Mum's face painted in green and gold zinc, and Dad wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "Australia" - cheering from the Australian Yachting Federation boat.

"It was pretty amazing to see Mum and Dad looking like that," Armstrong laughed. "But I'm still a Kiwi at heart. Changing countries was a big decision for me - I didn't take it lightly.

"But I don't regret it at all."

As a true blue Kiwi, Armstrong finished fourth at the Barcelona Olympics in the Europe dinghy.

She moved to Sydney four years ago, when her Scandinavian husband, Erik Stibbe, got a job coaching the Australian Olympic solo dinghy sailors.

She met Stowell when she joined Elle Racing, the all-women's round-the-world race campaign that never left the dock. They struck up a friendship and a sailing partnership and decided to become Australians.

"The opportunity to sail with Belinda was too good. It's hard to find a good crew in a double-handed boat," Armstrong said.

Now that she is an Olympic champion, Armstrong has decided to stay an Aussie and go back to her job at the Sydney Visitors Bureau. "It's such a crack-up. Here's me 'the local', telling tourists where to go."

The two women sailing under the New Zealand flag, Melinda Henshaw and Jenny Egnot, suffered their final humiliation on Thursday after a heartbreaking week.

Halfway through the race they were seventh, but they were thrown into the harbour when their boat capsized.

Once gold medal contenders, the Kiwis finished the regatta 11th.

The Kiwi men, Simon Cooke and Peter Nicholas, were content to lift their overall standing to seventh on the final day.