In a bleak Olympics for Greece, the sailing trio if Sofia Bekatorou, Sofia Papadopoulou and Virginia Kravarioti have offered one of the few bright spots, landing a bronze medal in the Yngling class sailing. SIG caught up with Bekatorou - a gold medallist in Athens four years ago -  while she was having dinner in downtown Beijing to offer our congratulations.

SIG: Sofia, sorry to interrupt dinner but....many congratulations

SB: Thanks very much.

SIG: That looked a very tough competition...

SB The competition was really tough. On the last day there were eight boats fighting for third spot so from the racing perspective it was really difficult. And the conditions were hard as well. It was raiing very strongly, we had high winds and big waves. But with Sofia Papadopoulou and Virginia Kravarioti, we kept our patience during the difficult parts and managed to finish in third place and that put us on the podium.

SIG: You had a poor first day and it was only really in race three that things started coming together.

SB: That's true. On the first day we made some mistakes although we had good roundings at the first mark. But t the same time we knew we had a good chance to do well because we had good speed so we could fight for a medal. But after having an OCS on the third day, the chances for gold got much slimmer. Our last chance really was a bronze and we were delighted with the outcome.

SIG: You won gold in the 470 class with Emilia Tsoulfa in Athens four years ago. How does this compare?

SB:That was an amazing experience competing with Emilia. But I was looking forward to a new challenge and the change in class to Yngling and working with two young girls, Sofia and Virginia. This was also a great experience. We learnt many new things both technically and in terms of teamwork.

SIG: How long have you been a crew?

SB: Sofia joined us in 2005 but we only got Virginia five months before the Olympics. So we had many problems on the way but we got good support from our sponsors Eurobank and from the many supporters of our team. And so together we managed to overcome the difficulties and take the bronze.

SIG: Will you stay together to compete in London 2012?

SB: We haven't really thought about that yet. We were just focussing on these Olympics right up until the end. Now we are going to get some rest and reflect on how we performed. Then we will talk about the future. Maybe we will all be together and going for another gold.

SIG: Is there a feeling of disappointment in the Greek team that there has not been so much to cheer this time?

SB: Greece this time didn't win so many medals but I know that all the athletes were fighting with all their strength. I hope that in the future we will get more support from the government, that we will be able to plan on time so that we can get even better results.

SIG: Thanks Sofia, time to get back to your noodles

SB: Many thanks.