Three Person Keelboat (Soling), Open

This event was expected to come down to East Germany (GDR) against the United States. They had finished 1-2 at the European Championships earlier in the year. East Germany was skippered by Jochen Schümann, who had won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics in the Finn class, while the American skipper was John Kostecki, who was making his first Olympic appearance, but was a multiple World Champion, including winning World titles in 1988 in the J/24 Class and the Soling. After six races they were well ahead of the rest of the field, with Schümann leading slightly. Both skippers won three races, with two seconds, but Schümann’s sixth counting race was a third in race two, while Kostecki had finished fourth in race three. Kostecki won the final race, which he needed to do, but Schümann hung on and finished second, despite a poor start, preserving his lead and the gold medal.