Games Heartbreak For Armit, Ten Have But Windsurfing Future Looks Bright

Only 24 hours after the elation of winning their first medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Friday, the New Zealand sailing team experienced the heartbreak of falling agonisingly short of a second.

Josh Armit finished fourth in the men's windsurfing event on day 7 at the Marseille Marina, following a third-place finish in the semifinal of the high-octane event.

He entered the four-board elimination race after finishing third overall in qualifying, with only the first two riders advancing from the semifinal to the medal race.

Armit was in impressive form throughout the regatta, with top-five placings in half of his races. However, a sluggish start in the knockout forced him to play catch-up with Dutchman Luuc van Opzeeland and eventual gold medalist Tom Reuveny of Israel.

"It's a bit tough to take at the moment, but it's been a really good week, and I gave it my best in every race. I gave it my best shot again today, but it just wasn't enough," Armit said.

"My start was a bit slow, and it's hard to come back from that in tight racing like this."

Reuveny surprised Australia's Grae Morris in the final, with van Opzeeland winning bronze.

At just 22, Armit's rise in the sport has been remarkable. A former youth world champion in the ILCA 6, Armit only started windfoiling in late 2020.

And he already has one eye on Los Angeles 2028.

"I've learned a lot this campaign and especially over the last few weeks," he said. "I have high expectations of what I want to achieve. I'm proud of my fourth place, but I am ready to get straight back into it. I'm definitely coming back for more."

The same applies to 23-year-old Veerle ten Have, who bowed out at the quarterfinal stage of the women's windsurfing competition.

Ten Have finished seventh in her final race to be 10th overall at her first Games.

"I'm proud of how I sailed. It's not the result I wanted, but I left everything out there," ten Have said.

"It's a dream come true being here, being able to represent New Zealand, and being 10th is pretty special. The experience in Marseille has been invaluable for me looking ahead - seeing how the other teams and my teammates operate and how everyone deals with the pressure is just amazing. I'm going to take so much away from this.

"Seeing the 49er boys (Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie) win silver yesterday added a lot of extra motivation. Seeing them do it made the rest of us want to win a medal even more."

Tom Saunders, meanwhile, continued his push for a podium with his lowest score of the regatta, locking in a 3 in his second race of the day.

Saunders is in fifth overall, with only eight points separating him and second-placed Brit Michael Beckett. Four qualifying races remain ahead of the double-points medal race.

"I feel like I'm sailing pretty well, but just not quite converting some chances out there at the moment, which is frustrating," Saunders said.

"I'm still in a good spot, and there is plenty of racing left, so it's all to play for."

World champion Matt Wearn leads the fleet on an impressive 18 points, and he is someone Saunders knows well, having trained with the Aussie for several months leading up to the Olympics.

"Matt's obviously the benchmark at the moment, and we have been training a lot together. Hopefully, we can put a few more scores together and make it a bit harder for him."

Greta Pilkington also enjoyed her best day of the women's dinghy (ILCA 6) contest so far, with scores of 15 and 18 bookending a 33. She's moved up six places to 30th in the event led by Dutch veteran Marit Bouwmeester.

"It's pretty cool knowing you're on the same start line and sailing the same course as the likes of Marit and knowing that, if you can get a few things right, it could be anyone's game," Pilkington said.

Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson opened their Olympic campaign in the mixed multihull (Nacra 17) with three impressive runs to sit in fourth place.

"It's great to finally start, especially with those boys (McHardie and McKenzie) getting the silver yesterday. We were pretty hyped up," Wilkinson said.

"You're always a bit nervous at the start of the regatta, so to get it under the belt is good. The Italians (Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti) are ripping, so for us to be close to them all day... we'll take it."

Men's and women's kitefoiling officially makes its Olympic debut tomorrow, with Lukas Walton-Keim and Justina Kitchen as the New Zealand competitors.

Tomorrow's schedule:
12 pm (10 pm NZT): Men's dinghy - Tom Saunders (2 races)
12.10 pm (10.10 pm NZT): Men's kite - Lukas Walton-Keim (4 races)
12. 30 pm (10.30 pm): Women's kite - Justina Kitchen (4 races)
2.30 pm (12.30 am NZT): Women's dinghy - Greta Pilkington (2 races)
3.40 pm (1.40 am NZT): Mixed multihull - Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson (3 races)

Latest results and standings from day 7 of the Olympic sailing competition in Marseille:
Men's windsurfing fleet (24 boards)
1. Tom Reuveny (Isr) 8 13 5 3 3 4 (25BFD) 3 5 13 (15) 4 2 2 1 - 66 pts
2. Grae Morris (Aus) (13) (25DNS) 10 9 1 7 2 1 9 2 4 7 8 2 - 62 pts
3. Luuc van Opzeeland (Ned) (25BFD) 9 2 1 6 1 3 (25DSQ) 11 14 15 1 6 1 1 3 -74 pts
4. Josh Armit (NZ) 4 (18) 1 14 8 (25UFD) 11 2 6 4 2 3 11 3 - 69 pts

Women's windsurfing leet (24 boards)
1. Marta Maggetti (Ita) 5 3 4 (20) 11 4 3 8 4 4 4 (15) 11 9 2 1 - 73 pts
2. Sharon Kantor (Isr) (25DSQ) 6 10 1 1 3 4 2 (15) 1 2 6 2 11 1 2 - 52 pts
3. Emma Wilson (GBR) 1 2 1 2 (17) 1 1 1 1 (3) 1 1 3 3 3 - 21 pts
10. Veerle ten Have (NZ) (25DSQ) 15 16 8 (18) 5 12 11 3 5 3 2 16 13 7 - 116 pts

Men's dinghy fleet (43 boats)
1. Matt Wearn (Aus) 12 2 1 (18) 1 2 - 18 pts
2. Michael Beckett (19) 9 15 8 4 4 - 40 pts
3. Pavlos Kontides (Cyp) 17 5 (27) 5 10 5 - 42 pts
5. Tom Saunders (NZ) 11 17 10 7 (19) 3 - 48 pts

Women's dinghy fleet (43 boats)
1. Marit Bouwmeester (Ned) (4) 1 2 4 2 3 - 12 pts
2. Anne-Marie Rindom (Den) 7 (26) 7 2 8 4 - 28 pts
3. Hannah Snellgrove (GBR) 17 (20) 6 1 1 14 - 39 pts
30. Greta Pilkington (NZ) 21 34 (41) 15 33 18 - 121 pts

Mixed multihull fleet (19 boats)
1. Ruggero Tita/Caterina Banti (Ita) 1 1 (2) - 2 pts
2. Mateo Majdalani/Eugenia Bosco (Arg) 2 2 (5) - 4 pts
3. Sinem Kurtbay/Akseli Keskinen (Fin) 3 (7) 4 - 7 pts
4. Micah Wilkinson/Erica Dawson (NZ) 5 3 (7) - 8 pts

© Scoop Media