Denmark's Roug takes Europe class gold
Denmark's Kristine Roug took Olympic gold in the tiny Europe dinghy class on Wednesday--the second successive Scandinavian triumph in the event.

Margriet Matthijsse of the Netherlands won the silver and American Courtenay Becker Dey the bronze.

Roug was clearly the superior sailor in the 11-foot (3.3-meter) dinghies during the early races of the competition, but Matthijsse recovered from a shaky start to mount a campaign for gold late in the series.

However the Dutch champion needed to win Wednesday's heat and hope Roug would finish eighth or worse if she was to snatch the honors.

The Dane adopted a policy of following Matthijsse about the course in the 13 to 15 knot breeze, never letting her out of sight.

As they battled, Germany's Sibylle Powarzynski and Norway's Linda Konttorp slipped by to finish first and second respectively.

Great Britain's Shirley Robertson had an outside chance to knock Becker Dey out of the Bronze medal position, but her third-place finish in race 11 was not good enough.

Becker Dey's sixth-place finish on Wednesday gave her a two-point buffer over the Brit while Matthijsse's fourth and Roug's fifth meant the overall standings for the top three remained the same as they were before the race.

Roug's Europe-class success follows that of Norwegian Linda Anderson at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

This story written by Reuters correspondents