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New Zealand's campaign at the 49er world championships in Cagliari came to a somewhat subdued end when Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie narrowly missed out on a place in the revamped medal race overnight.
In their first major regatta since winning silver at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games last August, McHardie and McKenzie were well in contention to advance under the newly introduced top-20 race before an untimely capsize ended their challenge. The pair started the race in sixth overall, needing to climb into the top four to qualify for the winner-take-all final.
"With the points reasonably close ahead of the top-20 race, we could move forward, but we could also move back," McKenzie said. "Our plan was to just go out there, try and win the race rather than target certain boats. We just wanted to do the best we could and hope the two boats in front of us were at least six points back."
The new format, trialled for the first time at this event, meant the four leading boats after the top-20 race advanced to a final where the first to cross the finish line would take gold - regardless of their ranking throughout the week. Designed to heighten spectator appeal, it replaces the previous double-points medal race that often rewarded consistency over the regatta.
"The new format is quite different to what we're used to," McKenzie said. "From our position in sixth, we liked it because it meant we still had a chance of winning if we put down a good result and made the top four. That made it exciting."
The Kiwis started strongly from the pin end in the top-20 race, but a general recall forced a restart. Their second attempt was less clean, and after working the right side of the course, they missed an early wind shift that left them chasing the leaders. McHardie and McKenzie fought back to second at one point before bad luck struck.
"We were still in the game coming into the port lay at the top out of a tack, but unfortunately I dropped the tiller extension and we ended up capsizing," McHardie said. "That was a real shame because we were close enough to keep fighting, but it sort of ruined our race a little bit."
They finished outside the top 10 in the race, slipping to seventh overall. Despite the disappointment of missing the medal series cut, the pair were upbeat about their performance given their limited preparation.
Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie finished seventh at the 49er world championships after more than a year away from the class. Photos / Sailing Energy
The McKiwis, as they were dubbed at last year's Games, only resumed their on-water partnership two months ago after a deliberate decision to take a year off and come back refreshed following eight years of non-stop Olympic campaigning.
"We haven't put a lot of time into the boat since the Olympics, so the expectations weren't really that high for us coming into the worlds," McHardie said. "That said, we're two really competitive guys, so we'd love to be higher up on the leaderboard - but without the training time, we can't realistically expect too much."
It was a valuable week not just for McHardie and McKenzie, but also for the other Kiwi crews. European champions Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush were the only other New Zealand team to make the gold fleet, finishing two places short of the top-20 cut.
New partnership Mattias Coutts and Oscar Gunn claimed second in the silver fleet and 27th overall, while Sam Bacon and Blake McGlashan were 39th. Francesco Kayrouz and Hamish McLaren topped the bronze fleet, finishing 56th overall.
"Overall we're happy with how we did," McHardie said. "We made some really big improvements in our speed since the Olympics, especially in the upper-range conditions."
The duo will now return home to reflect on the regatta before mapping out their next steps.
"The plan now is to go home and debrief the event," McKenzie said. "From there we'll start to project forward and make a plan."
Full results here.
