Issue date
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have sealed the deal today taking out the 2013 SAP 49er European Championships in Arhus Denmark.
Alex Maloney and Molly Meech also secured a podium finish taking bronze in the 49erFX European Championship, with a further two top nine results for New Zealand including 5th for Natalia Kosinska at the RS:X European Championships and 9th for Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski in the 49er fleet.
Video
Burling and Tuke after victory
Maloney and Meech after bronze
Photos
The final day of racing in Denmark featured three short, fast medal races on a tightly defined race track watched by a crowd of spectators both ashore and on the water, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing today for the Olympic silver medallists with skipper Burling actually falling from the boat in the opening medal race and crossing the line last.
Turning things around they responded with a win in the next race, followed by a 5th in the final of three and secured the overall victory by four points.
“We had a pretty bad race in that first one I actually fell out the back of the boat we were just trying to bounce back from that and had a really good one the second one and managed to just do what we had to in the last one,” says Burling.
While the pair are no strangers to the podium Tuke explains that this victory is a milestone, the kiwis enjoying the top step and the gold medal this time despite a strong performance from British sailors Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign who claimed silver.
“It’s great,” responds Tuke when asked how it feels to win. “Obviously we won silver at the Olympic last year but it’s the first time we’ve actually won a major international regatta like this with all the top guys here so it’s really pleasing for us and especially being the first regatta back for us since the Olympics. We came here to just get back in the boat but we’ve been sailing really well this week so we’re pretty happy.”
Burling explains what they’ll take away from this regatta; “It’s positive for ourselves to know that you can make a stuff up like that and bounce back ten minutes later. They’re turning the races around so quickly out there, so to fix the boat jump back in and make the right decisions.”
In the 49erFX class, which debuts as an Olympic class at Rio 2016, young kiwis Alex Maloney and Molly Meech went into the final day lying 3rd and have secured the bronze medal with no change to the order of the top three today.
Maloney and Meech were 2nd, 1st and then 7th on the water today racing against eight other crews in the three medal races. Dominant throughout Danish sailors Nielsen and Olsen brought it home in front of their home crowd.
“Consistency throughout the regatta helped us get on the podium,” says Meech. “Today was quite tricky out there, we sailed quite well in the first two races and then the last race we had a little incident at the start at got a bit held up, and we might not have made the right choices after that.”
With a full strength fleet including all the current 49erFX campaigners this result is another exciting indicator of the potential that this young kiwi pair has, but they know well that it’s a long road to Rio. Their next focus will be for the 2013 49erFX World Championships.
“I think we learnt a lot – where our weaknesses are and our strengths. It’s really good because we have a couple of months until our Worlds and so we can go home and really work on a few things and come back a lot better for it,” adds Maloney.
Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski finished 9th overall in the Men’s fleet after a 2nd a 9th and a 6th in today’s three medal races. With moments of brilliance through the regatta this young pair have secured themselves another excellent result in the massive 91 boat quality fleet.
The 2013 49er and 49erFX World Championships are in Marseilles, France, from Sept 21-29, 2013.
2013 SAP 49er European Championships
New Zealand’s final results
3rd Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech
(Women’s fleet full results)
1st Peter Burling and Blair Tuke
9th Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski
11th in Silver Fleet Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock
(Men’s fleet full results)
Kosinska finishes in 5th at RS:X European Champs
Kiwi windsurfer Natalia Kosinska has missed out on a podium finish at the 2013 RS:X Womens’ European Championships just concluded at Brest, France ending the six day regatta in 5th place.
Leading at times and sailing with great consistency Kosinska will be bitterly disappointed not to convert her great results to a medal. However the fleet in France is top quality as Yachting New Zealand’s High Performance Director Jez Fanstone explains;
“This fleet is of the same quality as the World Championships. Natalia is winning races and sailing really consistently,” he continues, “her hard work is paying off.”
2013 RS:X European Championships
New Zealand’s final results
5th Natalia Kosinska (Women)
28th Xanthe Bowater (Women Youth)
42nd Alexander Hart (Men Youth)
(Full results from France)
Links:
Yachting New Zealand website
NZL Sailing Team on Facebook
NZL Sailing Team sailor profiles
About the NZL Sailing Team
NZL Sailing Team includes New Zealand’s top Olympic campaigners who share the ultimate goal to win Olympic medals for New Zealand at the Rio Games in 2016.
NZL Sailing Team sailors all started out at grass roots yacht clubs around the country and with commitment, dedication and drive have risen to be world class athletes; they work hard in the gym, train long hours on the water and are supported by great coaches.
For more information contact
Jodie Bakewell-White
Communications Manager, Yachting New Zealand
E. jodie@yachtingnz.org.nz
M. 021 709 065
