Issue date
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have once again secured 49er gold before starting the medal race, this time at 2016 Sailing World Cup Hyeres in France. Another six New Zealand crews will sail in tomorrow’s medal races on the final day of the regatta.
49er
Donning the yellow leaders’ bibs again for today’s penultimate day of racing, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke come off the water with an unassailable 48 point leading margin.
Today they sailed three races, which didn’t go all their way.
Burling says, “We were pretty happy with how we started our day, we managed to get ourselves back to a pretty solid one in the first, win the second one and then a couple of swims in the last one (chuckling) and managed to get ourselves black flagged.”
Tuke added, “A black flag is a black flag and anyone can get them if they are pushing the start.”
They are required to sail tomorrow’s medal race, but are assured of the gold medal. The victory extends their winning run to 26 consecutive regatta victories in the class.
Tuke said, “We were a bit disappointed we finished how we have but at the same time we sailed really well this week and it’s been great fun to have some pretty strong winds.”
With the Olympic Games now less than 100 days away from starting the pair see this victory as another stepping stone towards Rio 2016.
“Obviously we are really happy with how we have been going at the moment but still like we have been saying, we have a lot of hard work to do over the next three or four months just to finish it off and finish off the final detailing,” says Peter Burling.
“If Rio was tomorrow I don’t feel like I think we are ready yet, so we’ve still got plenty in the tank to go and we are looking forward to the challenge.”
The second New Zealand 49er crew of Logan Dunning Beck and Jack Simpson have ended the regatta in 32nd place.
470 – Men and Women
Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie have dropped in the women’s 470 standings to 6th overall after a 17th, a 6th and a BFD result from the final race of the day, which they led from start to finish.
They are disappointed. “Rough day to finish off three races today,” says Jo Aleh.
“We thought we actually sailed well, but just nothing seemed to be willing to go our way! If we were left the right paid, if we were on the left the right paid.”
“Then we finally smashed out the last race of the day, led the whole way around nice and easy. But we were black flagged. So that ruined that bit of fun… Bugger!”
“So with today that puts us rather out of contention for tomorrow's medal race… We are in 6th place and no chance of a medal. But still, it’s a good chance to practice another medal race.”
Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox take 6th place overall into the men’s 470 medal race. Mixed results from today, including a 32nd, a 19th and a 9th sees them slip one place overall in the standings. The pair will be aiming for a good medal race tomorrow which could see them claim a top five finish in Hyeres.
Finn
The Finn fleet sailed just one race today and a 3rd place from Josh Junior sees him advance to tomorrow’s medal race lying 4th overall and within easy reach of the podium.
Leader Jake Lilley from Australia has a seven point lead, holding 28 points. Behind him, the battle for the minor medals will be intense with Anders Pedersen (NOR) on 35 points, Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) on 36 points and New Zealand’s Josh Junior on 37 points.
With double points up for grabs in the medal race, this live screened race is set to be a nail biter.
Andrew Murdoch returned an 8th in today’s race, which sees him climb from 14th to 12th overall. Outside of the top ten at the close of business today means Murdoch misses a medal race spot.
Laser and Laser Radial
Both Sam Meech and Andy Maloney had excellent days today, and both will sail in the Laser medal race with Meech the best placed to secure a podium finish.
Lying 2nd going into today Meech is now in 4th, but a closer look at the points shows that just one point separates him from the silver medal position. Germany’s Philipp Buhl and Australia’s Mathew Wearn are locked on 49 points with New Zealand’s Sam Meech just one adrift on 50 points – it’s all on for tomorrow!
Talking immediately after coming ashore Meech talked about today’s races; “The first didn’t feel it went that great and the second felt like it was going alright but I’m not exactly sure how I ended up.”
“It was a reasonable day. I didn’t get any discards so that’s all good,” he added, laughing.
Meech describes the conditions, “It was pretty windy out there, a little more than I was expecting as it was light when we launched, so that was a bit of a surprise.”
The leader, Tom Burton (AUS) is five points clear, so not out of reach.
Maloney improved from 8th to 6th with his results today. He has 58 points and a good medal race from him could see him improve further.
Maloney said, “I had two good races and managed to get away with two top 10, top 5 races. It was a solid day. It is a top, top fleet so to come away with two good results was definitely a solid day for me.”
In the Laser Radial Sara Winther finished strongly with a good day on the water in today’s strong winds, but it wasn’t enough to secure a place in the medal race and she ends the regatta in 11th place.
49erFX
Another busy schedule of four races for the 49erFX fleet was completed today with New Zealand’s Alex Maloney and Molly Meech edging up one position into 8th overall.
They scored a couple of 15th places to open today, then fought back with a 2nd and a 4th and will join the top ten crews to sail the 49erFX medal race tomorrow.
Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland had a mixed day today and close the regatta in 17th overall.
Nacra 17
Lying 13th going into today Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders have edged themselves back into the top ten and earned a spot in the Nacra medal race.
A pair of 7ths and a 15th was enough to lift them up the leader board and scrape into the top ten, by just one point.
Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson wrap up 2016 Sailing World Cup Hyeres with a 23rd place finish.
Women’s RS:X
Natalia Kosinska has placed 24th overall in the women’s RS:X windsurfing.
Sunday’s medal races will be screened live:
Online here https://youtu.be/8HNURakIT7o
Or on SKY Sport 1 in New Zealand starting 9pm
The Live Medal Race schedule is as follows:
11:10 - Women's 470
11:50 - Laser
12:30 - Finn
13:10 - Nacra 17
13:50 - 49er
14:25 - Men's RS:X
15:05 - Women's RS:X
2016 World Sailing Cup Hyeres
New Zealand Team current standings
Full results here
1st Peter Burling and Blair Tuke – 49er (1, 3, 9, 1, 6, 3, 1, 9, 10, 1, 28)
32nd Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson – 49er (18, 32, 19, 15, 37, 39, 25, 34, 1, 37, 32)
8th Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech – 49erFX – (9, 22, 4, 13, 22, 7, 10, 1, 15, 15, 2, 4)
17th Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland – 49erFX – (1, 11, 19, 8, 14, 20, 4, 18, 25OCS, 16, 23, 18)
6th Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie – Women’s 470 (2, 1, 17, 6, 7, 17, 6, 35BFD))
6th Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox – Men’s 470 (5, 6, 10, 3, 10, 32, 19, 9)
4th Josh Junior – Finn (4, 1, 5, 7, 35, 17, 3)
12th Andrew Murdoch – Finn (13, 5, 19, 9, 14, 12, 8)
10th Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders – Nacra 17 (3, 4, 3, 18, 19, 9, 16, 20, 34OCS, 7, 15, 7)
23rd Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson – Nacra 17 (34DNF, 19, 22, 17, 21, 21, 24, 34OCS, 18, 14, 2, 22)
4th Sam Meech – Laser (9, 11, 5, 12, 7, 3, 7, 8)
6th Andy Maloney – Laser (11, 15, 2, 20, 1, 20, 2, 7)
20th Andrew McKenzie – Laser (23, 41DNF, 34, 25, 8, 10, 6, 23)
11th Sara Winther – Laser Radial (17, 20, 16, 13, 24, 10, 12, 3)
24th Natalia Kosinska – Women’s RS:X (37, 38, 17, 9, 31, 22, 30, 16, 10, 24)
For more information contact:
Jodie Bakewell-White
Communications Manager, Yachting New Zealand
Tel. 021 709 065
Email. Jodie@yachtingnz.org.nz
Here are this year’s key dates on the Road to Rio...
May
2016 Finn World Championships (Finn Gold Cup), Gaeta, Italy
Racing dates: 6 – 11 May
2016 Laser World Championships, Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico
Racing dates: 12-18 May
June
ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth, United Kingdom
Racing dates: 10-14 June
August
2016 Rio Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Racing dates: 8-19 August
2016 Rio Paralympic Games, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Racing dates: 7–18 September
