Issue date
Both NZL Sailing Team crews competing at the opening regatta of the 2013-14 ISAF Sailing World Cup series for Olympic class sailors have medalled with Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie taking gold in the Women’s 470. Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox secured bronze in the Men’s 470.
The regatta, which ran over six days, was staged at the 2008 Olympic sailing venue off the eastern coast of China.
Olympic and World Champions Aleh and Powrie opened the regatta strongly clean sweeping the opening six races for the Women’s 470 class in which eight boats were sailing. Over the second half of the regatta Qingdao produced the light and tricky conditions its well known for and things didn’t go all the way of the kiwi pair with a strong challenge come from Chinese pair Hui Feng and Lizhu Huang over the final days.
But Aleh and Powrie held on and after a 3rd place in the final double points medal race they secured the victory with four points to spare.
After racing Powrie was happy how things went, "It was a bit stressful today. It was a bit more compact being on the smaller course and the girls in second had pretty good pace so we had our work cut out. We managed to keep close and come away with the win.
"We knew we could have at least one boat in between so we had a bit of room. We're really happy with the week and a nice way to finish off our year and we're stoked.”
A second medal came for New Zealand in the Men’s 470 for Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox who took out the final medal race to win bronze in the 13-strong fleet racing in Qingdao. Argentina’s Lucas Calabrese and Juan de la Fuente won the regatta ahead of Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic of Croatia with the kiwis in 3rd.
In the single-handed classes Thomas Saunders placed 8th overall in the Laser, Susannah Pyatt was 6th in the Laser Radial and Laura Lowther was 17th in the Laser Radial.
ISAF Sailing World Cup Qingdao
New Zealand’s Final Results
1st Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (Women’s 470)
3rd Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (Men’s 470)
8th Thomas Saunders (Laser)
6th Susannah Pyatt (Laser Radial)
17th Laura Lowther (Laser Radial)
Links
Full results here
Images here: http://www.flickr.com/isafmedialibrary
NZL Sailing Team Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/NZLSailingTeam
About the NZL Sailing Team
NZL Sailing Team includes New Zealand’s top Olympic campaigners who share the ultimate goal to win Olympic medals for New Zealand at the Rio Games in 2016.
NZL Sailing Team sailors all started out at grass roots yacht clubs around the country and with commitment, dedication and drive have risen to be world class athletes; they work hard in the gym, train long hours on the water and are supported by great coaches.
For more information contact
Jodie Bakewell-White
Communications Manager, Yachting New Zealand
E. jodie@yachtingnz.org.nz
M. 021 709 065
Images by ISAF
