Kiwis At Sail For Gold - Day Three

Date: 12th August 2010

Kiwis At Sail For Gold - Day Three

Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta is now at the halfway point with three days of racing completed and three to go in Weymouth, England – the site of the next Olympic Sailing Regatta.

A lovely sunny day in Weymouth with good consistent breeze provided sailors with opportunities to consolidate on their results after the turbulent conditions yesterday (Tuesday). There are some shake-ups in the overall standings as the first discard comes into effect.
 
There are now ten New Zealand representatives placed in the top ten of their respective events, the best placed being Andrew Murdoch in second in the Laser, and Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, also second in the 49er.

Laser
Andrew Murdoch has second place in the Lasers with Olympic champion Paul Goodison out in front. Murdoch, from Northland, raced to place 5th and then 15th overnight which sees him hold on to second place in the standings, but with a narrow margin.

He has 19 points and has a couple of sailors hot on his heels, including New Zealand’s Sam Meech just two points behind, on 21, in fourth position overall. Meech takes a meteoric climb after lying 21st after day two the young sailor from Tauranga finished 3rd then 6th, drops his worst race from his total and rockets up the board.

Josh Junior has also made his way into the top ten in the Lasers although unable to repeat his stellar day of two wins on day two, he came home in 14th and 13th on day three and moves up into seventh place. Mike Bullot is not too far behind in 12th place.

49er
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke sailed two races in the 49er on day three, placing 2nd in the first, then 14th in the next, which becomes their discard. They retain their position in second place on the board with the French pair of Dyen and Christidis still out in front with a six point lead.

Points are tight behind the kiwis with two teams just one point behind, the young guns from New Zealand will be aiming to keep their cool and sail well for the remaining three days. Despite their youth, they are both accomplished sailors and are really footing it with the best in their first Olympic campaign together in the class.

Star
Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk sailed three races overnight and have slipped from the lead in the Star class after placing 10th, 22nd and 25th on the water. They have taken a tumble to ninth place, but with three days of racing to play out they will be looking to fight back.

Men’s RS:X
Jon-Paul Tobin added another race win on day three of the regatta bringing his tally of race wins to three from six sailed in the world class Men’s RS:X fleet. In his other race last night he was 8th and just two points adrift of second place he stays well in touch with the leaders in fourth overall.

Britain’s Nick Dempsey has the lead in the class sailing with a pretty clean record on home waters despite the range of conditions; his worst race so far is a 5th.

Tom Ashley discards his poorest result from race one of the series and now moves up into seventh place after sitting in 13th at the start of the day.

Also in the top ten...
Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders in the Men’s 470 had a great day, relishing the conditions and rising to the challenge. With a 6th and  a 4th they have made their way into the top ten sitting in tenth place.

Dan Slater lies sixth in the Finn class after being awarded redress for an incident in race three, he went out on the water today and placed 3rd, 9th and 14th.

Sara Winther moves from 13th in the Laser Radial up in to sixth place with a solid day on the race track where she returned a 6th place. Her climb up the standings is largely due to the discard coming into play allowing her to drop a poor results from race two of the series.

Women’s Match Racing
With Stephanie Hazard at the helm the NZL Sailing Team’s Women’s match race crew came through the round robin with three wins and four losses, making a comeback on day two. It was not quite enough for them to advance to the finals rounds. Here is the latest from the women...

“We didn't get much rest as we were first start today for our final race in our round robin. Today we matched up against the Spanish team in light shifty breezes from the west. We came off the line with a boat length advantage. We made the most of the shifty conditions making gains round the race track. We finished with a six boat length lead.”

“So we finished the round robin with three wins four losses. This unfortunately was not enough to put us through to the final round so will fight it out for places 13th-18th. We start this race off later this evening, and should be finished by tomorrow.”
ends

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