Issue date
Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders are encouraged about improvements they have made in training recently which has helped them into second in the Nacra 17 after two days at the Medemblik Regatta in the Netherlands.
The pair were second, third and second in their three races overnight (NZ time) sailed in light winds of 5-9 knots. It means they are four points behind the Spanish combination of Fernando Echavarri Erasun and Tara Pacheco van Rijnsoever and with a five-point buffer over the British pair of John Gimson and Anna Burnet.
Max van der Zalm is the next best of the New Zealanders competing at Medemblik, with the Tauranga boarder fourth in the boy's under-19 RS:X. Vam der Zalm was disqualified from today's first race for being over the start line but backed it up with a seventh and a third to be one point off third.
Veerle Ten Have is 37th in the women's RS:X and Antonio Cozzolino 38th in the men's RS:X.
Jones and Saunders are expected to be among the contenders in Medemblik this week in a fleet missing some of the top Nacra 17 combinations. They are using it as a training regatta as they build up to August's world championships in Aarhus but also want to perform well.
"We had three pretty solid races where we found our upwind and downwind speed was pretty good, which allowed us to come through the fleet after some stickier starts than we had hoped," Jones said. "It meant some pretty consistent results which is positive for us because these were our weaker conditions in Palma and Hyeres. It's good to see the improvements we have made in training are paying off."
Jones and Saunders were 13th at the season-opening Princess Sofia regatta in Palma and 11th at the World Cup regatta in Hyeres.
Three more days of racing are scheduled, including the medal race on Saturday night (NZ time), and the wind is expected to freshen.
Results and standings after day two of the Medemblik Regatta in the Netherlands overnight (NZ time):
Nacra 17 (21 boats)
1st: Fernando Echavarri Erasun / Tara Pacheco van Rijnsoever (ESP) 2 1 1 (9) 2 1 - 7 points
2nd: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 1 (3) 3 2 3 2 - 11 pts
3rd: John Gimson / Anna Burnet (GBR) 5 2 2 (7) 4 3 - 16 pts
Boy's under-19 RS:X (21 boards)
1st: Fabien Pianazza (FRA) 1 1 1 1 1 (2) - 5 pts
2nd: Tom Garandeau (FRA) 2 2 (22 DNC) 5 2 1 - 12 pts
3rd: Jim van Someren (NED) 9 (10) 5 2 3 7 - 26 pts
4th: Max van der Zalm (NZL) 5 6 6 (22 UFD) 7 3 - 27 pts
Women's RS:X (47 boards)
1st: Zofia Noceti Klepacka (POL) 3 4 4 6 1 (22) 2 - 20 pts
2nd: Stefania Elfutina (RUS) 2 2 8 1 (17) 10 - 23 pts
3rd: Lilian de Geus (NED) 1 (48 RET) 2 23 6 2 - 34 pts
34th: Veerle Ten Have (NZL) 23 32 29 (44) 42 37 - 163 pts
Men's RS:X (58 boards)
1st: Maciej Kluszczynski (POL) (2) 2 1 1 1 1 - 6 pts
2nd: Yoav Cohen (ISR) 1 3 1 2 (7) 1 - 8 pts
3rd: Kieran Holmes-Martin (GBR) 1 (5) 4 1 2 2 - 10 pts
38th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) 17 16 (23) 8 22 23 - 86 pts
