Ten Have Into Unfamiliar Territory At Palma World Cup

Veerle ten Have was having to do some homework because of a series of outstanding results overnight (NZ time) that puts her in with a chance of taking out the women's iQFoil at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma.

New Zealand will be represented in three medal races tonight, with Tom Saunders qualifying fourth in the ILCA 7 (Laser) and Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson sixth in the Nacra 17.

Saunders will need everything to go his way to claim bronze and the medals are out of reach for the Nacra pair but ten Have is well in contention largely thanks to the format used by the windfoiling class.

The top qualifier moves directly through to a three-person final, with the remaining nine competitors battling for two spots to also take part in the final. The unfamiliarity of the format meant ten Have was swotting up on it after dinner.

Regardless of what happens on the final day of racing, it has been an impressive regatta for ten Have, who is competing in her first international windfoiling event. The 21-year-old won her second race of the regatta and backed it up with a second, third and fourth to bank the best return of anyone in the 74-strong fleet and move up four places to fifth overall.

"I'm still trying to process it that I'm up there," said ten Have, who described conditions today as similar to those she's spent the last two years training in off Takapuna. "Tomorrow I'm just going to go as hard as I can and see where I end up.

"I'm still getting to race tomorrow and to get the experience of doing a medal race before an important event is awesome. To get out there and race with the top sailors without any other interference [from the rest of the fleet] will be quite cool as well."

Saunders will go into the ILCA 7 medal race a lot more confident after putting together his best day of the regatta so far. The world champion has battled to stay in contention with the leaders all week but was second and sixth in today's two races to improve five places in the overall standings.

He's 18 points behind Olympic champion Matt Wearn in third, who is also 18 points behind Great Britain's Michael Beckett in first.

"It was a much better day for me today," Saunders said. "It was nice to convert a couple of good starts and be racing up the front for a good couple of scores.

"It's a shame it's a bit too late for a push for the medals but it's nice to put it all together on the final day before the medal race which puts me in good stead for the rest of the year."

Wilkinson and Dawson are similarly encouraged by their start to the European season and will sail with relative freedom in tonight's Nacra 17 medal race given they're out of contention for a place on the podium.

They were 10th, fourth and sixth in today's three races but Italy's Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti continued their incredible run of finishing every race in the top three to wrap up the gold medal at the year's first World Cup event.

"It was an OK day for us," Dawson said. "Nothing special. We are just looking forward to the medal race tomorrow, and will give it our best shot.

"It's been really cool to line up against the fleet here and do our first regatta together since the [Tokyo] Games. We have learned a lot, so I think it's a good place for us to start and something we will build on for the rest of the season."

There have been a few other bright spots from the remainder of the New Zealand contingent in Palma. Josh Armit has impressed in his first international iQFoil event and even posted a second placing in the final race against the quality fleet to finish 24th overall.

The chances of Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn doing well in the 49er suffered a serious setback on the eve of the regatta when Dunning Beck badly injured his ribs in training but they also finished on a good note with a fourth in their final gold fleet race to conclude the event in 16th overall.

And Alex Maloney and Olivia Hobbs showed promise in their first international event since teaming up a couple of months ago and will be boosted at their next event in Hyeres in a fortnight by a coach and training partners in Jo Aleh and Molly Meech.

Results and standings after day 5 of the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma:

ILCA 7 (165 boats)

1st: Michael Beckett (GBR) 2 1 1 2 12 13 (14) 2 1 3 - 37 points
2nd: Phillip Buhl (GER) 1 2 7 2 21 1 1 (23) 11 2 - 48 pts
3rd: Matt Wearn (AUS) (56 DNC) 26 2 1 2 2 3 12 6 1 - 55 pts
4th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 4 10 3 5 9 19 15 (36) 2 6 - 73 pts
51st: George Gautrey (NZL) 17 (56 DNF) 1 2 41 49 56 UFD 26 44 37 - 273 pts
92nd: Luke Deegan (NZL) 33 28 36 26 15 39 19 28 (46) 34 - 258 pts
95th: Luke Cashmore (NZL) 29 27 36 33 11 (42) 33 34 35 29 - 267 pts

ILCA 6 (89 boats)

1st: Sarah Douglas (CAN) 2 - 2 1 1 1 (46 UFD) 2 1 1 6 1 - 16 pts
2nd: Hannah Snellgrove (GBR) 3 (9) 6 6 7 1 3 5 3 7 - 41 pts
3rd: Vaeileia Karachaliou (GRE) 7 5 2 4 3 8 4 4 4 (34) - 42 pts

40th: Olivia Christie (NZL) 10 24 22 23 33 24 20 42 44 28 - 226 pts

Men's iQFoil (111 boards)

1st: Andrew Brown (GBR) 4 2 1 (6) 1 1 3 (7) 1 1 1 1 4 9 2 (16) 3 6 6 - 37 pts
2nd: Luuc van Opzeeland (NED) 1 (8) (14) 5 0.5 0.5 3 2 3 7 3 4 1 (52 UFD) 1 9 1 1 (14) - 42 pts
3rd: Nicolo Renna (ITA) 3 (7) 3 2 3 3 2 (10) 1 1 4 6 (48) 3 15 1 7 2 (26) - 56 pts

24th: Josh Armit (NZL) 13 (27) 17 17 9 9 10 22 9 (35 BFD) 31 26 21 (39) 28 23 15 9 2 - 239 pts
53rd: Thomas Crook (NZL) 7 (52 DNF) 29 18 (STP 51) NSC 51 NSC 24 8 1 15 1 4 5 4 4 (51) 11 1 (24) - 183 pts
61st: Eli Liefting (NZL) 30 35 (52 DNC) (52 DNC) 13.5 13.5 29 24 3 7 15 15 21 12 10 (51) 8 5 (51 DNC) - 241 pts
89th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) (52 DNC) (52 DNC) 22 52 DNC 51 DNC 51 DNC 52 DNC 52 DNC 35 DNC 35 DNC (51 DNC) 10 (51 DNC) 51 DNC 51 DNC 16 3 10 51 DNC - 544 pts

Women's iQFoil (74 boards)

1st: Helene Noesmoen (FRA) (17) 1 2 1 1 1 14 2 1 5 1 4 3 (27) (18) 3 4 13 2 - 58 pts
2nd: Pilar Lamadrid Trueba (ESP) 1 2 (13) 4 6 6 (15) 7 11 3 1 1 1 (75 BFD) 13 2 6 11.1 5 - 80.1
3rd: Daniela Peleg (ISR) 2 4 3 2 13 (13) (23) (25) 3 pts7 3 8 12 6 1 7 5 6 4 - 86 pts

5th: Veerle ten Have (NZL) (21) 16 10 13 3 3 10 (46) 7 13 1 (21) 11 7 2 4 2 3 1 - 106 pts
52nd: Brianna Orams (NZL) (75 DNF) 59 54 55 40 40 (75 DNC) (75 DNC) 23 23 25 54 51 43 21 34 40 49 47 - 658 pts

49er (76 boats)

1st: Erwan Fischer / Clemen Pequin (FRA) 1 1 1 (14) 2 8 1 13 5 1 4 1 - 38 pts
2nd: Ian Barrows / Hans Henken (USA) 1 10 6 2 (13) 1 5 3 4 6 5 6 - 49 pts
3rd: Mikolai Staniul / Jakub Sztorch (POL) 1 12 (13) 3 4 3 6 1 1 10 6 13 - 60 pts

16th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 10 2 9 12 6 (18) 5 8 20 22 4 - 119 pts
27th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) (27 DNC) 4 2 11 37 DSQ 1 15 7 3 9 4 2 - 85 pts
48th: Sam Bacon / Henry Gautrey (NZL) (27 DNC) 16 21 14 10 17 12 24 5 10 27 DNC 22 - 178 pts

49erFX (56 boats)

1st: Odile van Aanholt / Anette Duetz (NED) 4 1 2 (19) 2 1 1 3 14 1 6 4 - 39 pts
2nd: Martine Grael / Kahena Kunze (BRA) 2 1 6 15 1 9 15 2 1 4 (26 UFD) 3 - 59 pts
3rd: Isaura Maenhaut / Anouk Geurts (BEL) 1 4 13 11 1 10 2 6 10 2 3 (26 UFD) - 63 pts

21st: Alex Maloney / Olivia Hobbs (NZL) 14 7 8 21 8 (22) 9 19 12 20 20 12 - 150 pts

Nacra 17 (38 boats)

1st: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Banti (ITA) 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 (3) - 14 pts
2nd: Sinem Kurtbay / Akseli Keskinen (FIN) 3 2 2 (7) 7 3 5 4 4 3 3 2 - 38 pts
3rd: John Gimson / Anna Burnett (GBR) 5 8 9 1 2 2 6 1 3 6 (12) 1 - 44 pts

6th: Micah Wilkinson / Erica Dawson (NZL) 6 13 6 13 9 (15) 2 5 2 10 4 6 - 76 pts

Full results

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