World Champion Heads Lineup At Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta

There will be a freshness about this week's Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta as new teams target the 2024 Paris Olympics and new sailors emerge near the front of the fleet.

The year after an Olympic Games is often a transition year and that's no better illustrated than in the 49erFX fleet, where two-time women's 470 Olympic medallist Jo Aleh has teamed up with Molly Meech and Alex Maloney has formed a new partnership with Olivia Hobbs.

On top of that, a shakeup of the Olympic classes on the programme for the Paris Games means the emergence of a mixed 470 as well as men's and women's windfoiling (windsurfing) and men's and women's kitefoiling.

Nine Olympic classes will be contested across four days of the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta, which starts in Auckland tomorrow. The event will be held at three different venues on Auckland's North Shore as Yachting New Zealand look to minimise the risk to sailors, coaches and volunteers and work within the Covid Protection Framework.

This country's top Olympic hopefuls will be competing, including new ILCA 7 (Laser) world champion Tom Saunders who will look to continue a recent run of success.

In November he became just the second New Zealander to win the ILCA 7 world title, following on from Nik Burfoot in 1994, and backed it up with a second national title in January. The 29-year-old missed out on Olympic selection to Sam Meech over the last couple of cycles but is intent on winning the spot this time around.

"I’m feeling pretty good," Saunders said. "Training is starting to ramp up and Oceanbridge will be a great lead-in and check-in before we head away overseas.

"It’s a new [Olympic] cycle and my success lately gives me a lot of confidence. I just want to carry that on. I’m really happy with where I am at and the way I am trending so it definitely brings a lot of confidence heading away. I know I can do it and definitely want to keep performing at that level."

A large proportion of this country's top Olympic campaigners, including Saunders and the wider ILCA 7 squad, will head offshore next month in preparation for regattas in Palma and Hyeres. Saunders will then look to defend his world title in Mexico in May.

"It's a pretty busy first half of the year for us," he said. "The rest of the year will be more learning focused and trying to learn about venues like Marseille where the Games are going to be held."

Saunders will be among 132 sailors contesting the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta, which also incorporate the youth trials for the NZL Sailing Foundation Youth Team to compete at July's youth sailing world championships in the Netherlands. There will also be a big fleet of 39 competitors racing in the windfoil national championships running alongside the event.

Yachting New Zealand are hopeful of sending a team to this year's youth worlds after missing last year's regatta due to Covid-19 and the 2020 event was cancelled.

The Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta is a rare chance for youth sailors to rig up and sail alongside Olympians. Saunders is a former youth world champion and knows the significance of the youth trials but also sees it as a great learning experience for many up-and-comers.

"I think it’s a great opportunity for both us and the youth guys to be racing together," Saunders said. "It happens only once a year.

"The youth guys get to see all the Olympic campaigners go about their business, and I think it’s quite cool for them to see that. Everyone is always happy to help. It’s a big event for them."

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