Olympic dreams are made in heaven, and it was the heavens that helped 470 crewmembers Tom King and Mark Turnbull to gold on Sydney Harbour today.
After waiting 24 hours through lack of wind, the breeze came up today and the Australians were able to secure gold and help the total medal tally beyond the best ever result, which was in Melbourne in 1956.
Today's gold medal also took the Foster's Sports Foundation grant recipients total to five gold for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Tom and Mark handled the freshening breeze on Sydney Harbour to finish second in today's race to claim Gold for Australia. Earlier, team mates Jenny Armstrong and Belinda Stowell took Gold in the women's session.
Australia's latest medallists are two of 183 Australian athletes selected for the Games who are original recipients of Foster's Sports Foundation grants.
Other Foundation winners have been:
Gold:
Andrew Hoy, Phillip Dutton, Matt Ryan and Stuart Tinney - Three-day Equestrian
Bill Kirby - a member of the victorious men's 4x200m Freestyle relay team.
Natalie Cook - Beach volley ball
Lauren Burns - Taekwondo
Silver:
Andrew Hoy - individual Three-day Equestrian
Russell Mark - Double Trap Shoot
Ji Wallace - Trampolining
Jamie Fernandez and Nicholas Porzig - Men's Rowing Eights
Bronze:
Annemarie Forder - Women's 10m Air Pistol Shoot
Justin Norris - 200m Butterfly champion
Rebecca Gilmore & Loudy Tourky - Women's Synchronised 10m Platform
Robert Newbury & Dean Pullar - Men's Synchronised 3m Springboard.
Established in 1997 the Foster's Sports Foundation has provided $2.275 million toward recognising and promoting excellence in Olympic sport across Australia.
The Foundation specifically targeted up and coming athletes with grants being given to a total of 338 individual recipients.
In the first wave of grants, $1,175,000 was provided to aspiring Olympic athletes.
The Foundation has also provided grants of $3,000 to athletes selected for the Australian Olympic team who are not recipients of medal incentive scheme funding or other significant grants.
In total more than 365 individual Olympic competitors have received one of these grants.
Further information:
David Argus
Manager, Media Relations & Public Affairs
Carlton & United Breweries
Tel: +61 7 3212 0268
Mob: 0418 523 343
