Alejandro Abascal and Miquel Noguer won the first Olympic gold for Spanish sport.
In the 1980 JJOO the Spanish Olympic team achieved six medals: one gold, three silver and two bronze, but the gold did not come from Moscow, but from Tallin, the current capital of Estonia, located in Baltic Sea waters, more than 800 kilometres from Moscow. The Tallín Rada was the stage of the 1980 JJOO sailing tests. There on July 27, 1980, the santanderino Alejandro Abascal and the Catalan Miguel Noguer hung the Olympic gold. It had been fifty years since in the far-off JJOO of Amsterdam 1928, the Spanish horse team achieved with its victory in the GP of Nations the until then lone Olympic gold of Spanish sport. Appreciated for their results in the world championships, third in 1978 and second in 1979, of the Flying Dutchman class, Abascal and Noguer arrived in Moscow with serious aspirations.
JJ.OO 1980: Tallinn's Peketero with the names of the Olympic sailing champions
They had been thoroughly prepared and met with expectations by securing the gold in the absence of the last race. Their competition was extraordinary, they started with a fourth place, they were leaders with their victory in the second manga and no longer left this privileged situation, adding a second and a fourth in the following two trials, to overcome with double victory in the fifth and sixth races. With the gold secured the Spaniards did not take the exit in the seventh race in order not to interfere in the struggle for the silver and bronze medals for which they fought Ireland, URRS, RDA, Holland and Hungary. It was precisely the Hungarians who rose with bronze, thanks to their victory, the insufficient fourth place of the Dutch and the poor classification of Soviets and Eastern German, while the Irish, second, secured the silver. From the silver obtained by "Toño" Gorostegui and "Piti" Millet in 470 in Montreal '76 the candle became a safe value by providing Olympic-dating medals after Olympic-dating except in Sydney 2000 and Rio 2016 where two podiums were escaped at the Medal Race.
This makes this sport the one that has brought the most medals to the Spanish medallion with a total of 19 of which 13 have been of gold, five of silver and one of bronze, precisely the first achieved in Los Angeles 1932 by Santiago Amat Cassino, which was also the first individual win by a Spanish sportsman.
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