Yachting: Kiwis relinquish lead

Kiwis relinquish lead after protest before final day of 49er Europeans

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have relinquished their overall lead with one day to go at the 2015 49er European Championships being staged in Porto, Portugal, while New Zealand has closed out the women’s 49erFX Championship with two top ten placings.

Three races were sailed today for the 49er gold fleet off Porto and while Burling and Tuke’s on water results placed them at the top of the standings, they’ve subsequently been relegated to 3rd overall after a successful protest following racing.

The protest came from Australian’s Nathan Outteridge and Ian Jensen and sees Burling and Tuke score a DSQ for today’s second race. A deep finish – 21st in the next race – must now be counted and suddenly the kiwis points lead evaporates and they’re left five points behind the leaders.

“We had a pretty tough day today,” says Peter Burling. “There’s still plenty to play for, and these tough days are going to help us get to the end goal.”

“We will take as many learnings as we can out of today first of all,” says Burling about how they’ll be preparing for the final day. “There’s a lot of little technical tweaks you can do to the boat to make it suit the conditions, and then we’ve just got to go and race around the track slightly quicker than someone else.”

With four races planned tomorrow, including three finals and a Douro River medal race, the scene is set for a dramatic final day.

While Outteridge and Jensen lead (on 70 points) they’ll face tough competition tomorrow with another five crews, (including Burling and Tuke), within nine points and well in the hunt for the title and the podium.

Tomasz Januszewski and Jacek Nowak (POL) lie 2nd overall on 71 points while Burling and Tuke are on 75 points. John Pink and Stuart Bithell (GBR) were also disqualified in today’s second race and consequently drop well down the ranks to 8th.

Racing for the 2015 49erFX European Championships wrapped up today, the women sailing three finals races on the open ocean off the coast of Portugal, with the top ten then proceeding to the Duoro River for a spectator friendly medal race, which featured two kiwi crews.

Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech have ended the regatta in 6th overall. In today’s racing they placed 6th, 9th and 11th then saved their best for the tricky river conditions taking a 2nd place in the medal race.

Young up-and-comer crew Erica Dawson (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) and Ellie Copeland (Wakatere Boating Club) experienced their first ever high octane Olympic class international medal race impressing through the week to earn their place in the top ten. They finished 10th in the medal race and 10th overall.

Tomrrow’s forecast is for medium airs, and you can watch all the action on the live TV broadcast which is scheduled for the start of racing on Sunday at 1025am local time. Tune in and watch the drama on49er.org.

2015 49er European Championships current standings…
Full results, video, images and more available here

3rd Peter Burling and Blair Tuke
28th (3rd Silver Fleet) Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski

49erFX Final Results
6th Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech
10th Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland
ENDS

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