NZL Sailing Team at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres - Day 2
by Jodie Bakewell-White, Yachting New Zealand 22 Apr 2014 23:02 BST
19-26 April 2014
Sam Meech on day 2 at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres © Franck Socha / ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres
The NZL Sailing Team continued their good form into day two of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres Regatta where over 1100 Olympic class sailors from 59 nations are competing.
New Zealand now has eight crews lying within the top seven places in their fleet including three boats within the top three. They are Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (2nd in the Women's 470), Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (2nd in the 49er) and Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (2nd in the 49er).
Today Hyeres, France provided glamour sailing conditions and consistent easterly winds of 10-12 knots with all fleets wrapping up two days of qualifying. From here they progress to three days of finals racing ahead of Saturday's medal races.
In the 49er class Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are lying 2nd after relinquishing their day one lead to Great Britain's Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign who took a couple of race wins on day two and seem determined to end the antipodean dominance in the class. Burling and Tuke are just three points behind them however after a 4th, a 5th and a win on the water today.
Kiwi team-mates Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski were outstanding on day two lifting their overall standing from 11th up into the top three, now lying 3rd and four points back from Burling and Tuke. In today's racing they placed 4th, 1st and 2nd.
Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie retain 2nd overall in the Women's 470 after two great races on day two.
The current Olympic and world champions in the class are pleased, but always looking to improve; "We got a 3rd and a 2nd today, a good result on paper, but we know we stuffed up a few things and as usual have a few things to add to the 'we can do better' column. But overall it was a solid day, and we're looking forward to going for it again tomorrow."
In the 49erFX Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech were solid and consistent again today and will start the finals series lying 4th overall and relatively close on points to the leading trio from Britain, Brazil and Denmark. The kiwis were 6th, 8th and 3rd in racing today.
Over in the Laser class Alexandra and Molly's siblings are leading the charge for New Zealand with Andy Maloney returning great results today and moving up the leader-board by two places into 6th overall with Sam Meech just behind him in 7th. There are more than 120 sailors competing in the Laser event here in Hyeres and points are extremely close at the top of the table.
Holding the overnight lead in the Women's RS:X Natalia Kosinska has slipped to 6th place after today's racing in France where she placed 7th, 17th and 8th.
In the Finn class Josh Junior has climbed into the top seven adding a 9th and a 7th today and now discarding a black flag result from the opening race of the regatta. Team-mate Andrew Murdoch is lying 27th.
Across the other fleets in which New Zealand is competing Sara Winther is lying 18th in the Laser Radial, Jon-Paul Tobin is 17th in the Men's RS:X, Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders are 19th in the Nacra 17, while Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox are lying 33rd in the Men's 470.
Racing resumes in Hyeres tomorrow with another five days remaining. Medals will be decided on April 26th.
www.sailing.org/worldcup