Scot Anna Burnet helps Team GB win Olympic sailing silver

Scottish sailor Anna Burnet has won a silver medal for Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics.

Burnet, from Shandon, Gare Loch, in Argyll and Bute, triumphed alongside her race partner John Gimson in the mixed Nacra 17 class.

The Olympic debutants were guaranteed a medal going into the final race and finished safely in fifth to stay in second place behind Italians Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti.

Louise Burnet, Anna’s mother, said her daughter has “always had this great passion” since she began sailing at the age of five in an Optimist dinghy.

Burnet told PA “we would never ever have dreamed of this happening”, adding: “I’m a very proud mum.”

She said: “They’ve just been a great team together and it’s a massive passion for them both. They are really good friends and you need that partner you click with.

“When Anna started sailing at the local yacht club she had no fear of the water from an early age.

“There were a lot of long drives at weekends which her father Colin did a lot of, 11 hours down to the south coast at weekends, and it is certainly all worth it now.”

Burnet, who now lives in Weymouth, Dorset, started sailing at the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club on Gare Loch, Scotland’s oldest yacht club founded in 1824.

She soon won the female national Optimist title and was selected for the British worlds team in 2006 at the age of 14, said the British Sailing Team.

Chief executive of sportscotland, Stewart Harris, said: “Scotland has a proud tradition of successful sailors on Team GB and it’s terrific to see Anna Burnet join that illustrious list.

“To be selected to compete at an Olympic Games is a huge achievement, but to win a silver medal is very special.

“Congratulations to Anna, her partner John Gimson and the whole Scottish and British sailing family.”

Burnet and Gimson’s triumph capped a brilliant day for the British team after Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell claimed the gold medal in the men’s 49er before Giles Scott successfully defended his Finn title.