French Olympic Week: NZ In Medal Mix As Finals Series Starts

New Zealand claimed four race wins on a challenging final day of qualifying to remain in the medal hunt in three different classes at the French Olympic Week regatta in Hyères.

The country’s two leading 49er crews secured their spots in the gold fleet starting tomorrow with a victory apiece in their two heats – sailed in shifty conditions that delayed proceedings for several hours.

Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn held on to the yellow bibs for a second consecutive day after finishing first in the second race, while teammates Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie won the first to surge up the leaderboard ahead of the finals series.

McHardie and McKenzie finished fifth in race two, to climb 13 places to 12th overall – 15 points behind their compatriots.

“It was a tricky day and we ended up spending quite a long time on the shore, waiting for the fleets before us to race – who had some pretty tough conditions themselves,” said McHardie, who is eyeing a medal in back-to-back European events following bronze at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma de Mallorca earlier this month.

“It was super shifty, but we managed to come away unscathed and take the win in our first race. The second race was really tight as the breeze built but we got another solid result.”

Dunning Beck and Gunn, fresh off gold in Palma, lead Spanish pair Diego Botin and Florian Trittel by six points ahead of two days of gold-fleet competition, followed by a double-points medal race.

With four races scheduled for tomorrow, changes to the leaderboard are likely, McHardie said.

“There is still plenty of room to move. We’re excited to be in the gold fleet and looking forward to it.”

Also making the qualifying cut was Tom Saunders and George Gautrey in the packed ILCA 7 (Laser) fleet.

Saunders recovered from a 15th place in the first heat of the day to win the second and move into sixth overall on 17 points.

Gautrey, the Princess Sofia silver medallist, is 11 points back in 13th after scores of 6 and 21.

The fleet is led by British trio Elliot Hanson, Daniel Whiteley and Michael Beckett.

“It was a long day out there with some of us only getting in around 8pm (local time),” Saunders said.

“We needed a bit of luck as it was super light and shifty. I’m pretty happy - it could have gone better but it also could have gone a lot worse.”

Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson managed their first win of the regatta, taking out the third of the day’s four races in the Nacra 17 competition.

The pair, who finished 15th in Spain after claiming bronze at the Lanzarote International Regatta in February, qualified for the gold fleet in 16th – 20 points off the medal positions but with plenty of racing to come.

Their focus is now on converting more opportunities at the business end of the event.

“We are doing some of the basics well – starting well and manoeuvring well but we’re just not quite nailing our positioning at the moment,” Wilkinson said.

“We were struggling a bit in Palma and are battling again here but we feel we’re close to being on top of things. Hopefully, we can start converting in the gold fleet.”

Among those to miss out on a chance to compete for a podium spot this weekend are the 49er FX teams of Jo Aleh and Molly Meech, and Alex Maloney and Olivia Hobbs; as well as kitefoiler Justina Kitchen.

After winds of around 30kn saw the kites packed away on Wednesday, Kitchen again missed out on racing in breeze of barely 5kn overnight.

Her 27th place overall – after only four completed races on day one of the competition – means Kitchen narrowly missed a top-25 spot and will compete in the silver fleet instead.

Results and standings after day 3 of the French Olympic Week regatta in Hyères:

49er (72 boats)
1st: Logan Dunning Beck/Oscar Gunn (NZ) (2) 1 1 (11) 1 - 5 points
2nd: Diego Botin/ Florian Trittel (Spa) 1 (11) 5 4 1 - 11 pts
3rd: Ian Barrows/Hans Henken (USA) - 1 3 3 4 (6) - 11 pts
12th: Isaac McHardie/Will McKenzie (NZ) 5 (15) 9 1 5 - 20 pts
39th: Campbell Stanton/Will Shapland (NZ) 19 (DNC25) DNC25 3 3 - 50 pts
51st: Scott McKenzie/Blake McGlashan (NZ) 14 15 (DNC25) 16 17 - 62 pts
55th: Sam Morgan/Pat Morgan (NZ) 17 (DNF25) DNC25 22 3 - 67 pts

49er FX (50 boats)
1st: Jana Germani/Giorgia Bertuzzi (Ita) 1 1 (14) 3 3 - 8 pts
2nd: Odile van Aanholt/Annette Duetz (Ned) 2 2 (9) 2 2 - 8 pts
3rd: Olivia Price/Evie Haseldine (Aus) 3 4 1 5 (9) - 13 pts
30th: Jo Aleh/Molly Meech (NZ) 13 14 13 (18) 11 - 51 pts
37th: Alex Maloney/Olivia Hobbs (NZ) 11 10 18 16 (23) - 55 pts
48th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith/Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZ) 22 (DNC26) 20 24 16 - 82 pts

ILCA 7 (155 boats)
1st: Elliot Hanson (GBR) 2 1 1 1 (18) 8 - 13 pts
2nd: Daniel Whiteley (GBR) 1 7 2 2 2 (12) – 14 pts
3rd: Michael Beckett (GBR) 3 3 (5) 3 1 4 – 14 pts
6th: Tom Saunders (NZ) 5 1 7 3 (15) 1 - 17 pts
13th: George Gautrey (NZ) 5 6 4 7 6 (21) - 28 pts
78th: Luke Cashmore (NZ) 30 14 16 25 34 (44) - 119 pts
107th: Luke Deegan (NZ) 21 27 37 29 38 (44) – 152 pts
117th: Caleb Armit (NZ) 46 31 19 34 35 (48) – 164 pts

ILCA 6 (94 boats)
1st: Sarah Douglas (Can) 1 2 (9) 2 8 4 - 17 pts
2nd: Maud Jayet (Sui) 8 1 3 3 7 (11) - 22 pts
3rd: Agata Barwinska (Pol) 3 (7) 1 7 5 6 - 22 pts
63rd: Olivia Christie (NZ) 22 18 23 (34) 33 33 - 129 pts

Nacra 17 mixed (46 boats)
1st: Jason Waterhouse/Lisa Darmanin (Aus) 1 1 4 (12) 6 - 12 pts
2nd: Mourniac Tim/Lou Berthomieu (Fra) 3 3 1 (21) 5 - 12 pts
3rd: John Gimson/Anna Burnet (GBR) 3 3 1 5 (7) - 12 pts
16th: Micah Wilkinson/Erica Dawson (NZ) 6 (15) 14 1 11 - 32 pts

470 mixed (64 boats)
1st: Jordi Xammar/Nora Brugman (Spa) 1 1 (12) 3 2 - 7 pts
2nd: Beatriz Gago/Rodolfo Pires (Por) (8) 6 3 5 1 - 15 pts
3rd: Lara Vadlau/Lukas Mahr (Aut) 5 3 2 (9) 6 - 16 pts
52nd: Brittany Wornall/Sam Street (NZ) 18 (DNC33) 30 19 17 - 84 pts

Kitefoil women (50 boards)
1st: Daniela Moroz (USA) 1 (2) 1 1 - 3 pts
2nd: Jessie Kampman (Fra) 1 1 (2) 2 - 4 pts
3rd: Maddy Anderson (GBR) 2 3 (7) 1 - 6 pts
27th: Justina Kitchen (NZ) (15) 12 12 11 - 35 pts

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