Issue date
Today turned into a double-medal day for New Zealand at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain.
Image: Burling and Tuke in action today ©Barbara Sanchez/Sailing Energy
More photos from today here
Not only were Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie presented the women’s 470 silver medal, but Peter Burling and Blair Tuke ended the penultimate day of their series with an unassailable lead and the 49er World Championship title in the bag.
Burling and Tuke simply have to show up for tomorrow’s medal race but they see it as an opportunity to celebrate their win and enjoy themselves; Tuke says, “We still have to sail the medal race tomorrow and we will be looking to go out on a high.”
Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie won silver at the 2014 Women’s 470 World Championships, relinquishing their title to Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar of Austria in today’s light wind medal race in Santander, Spain.
The 49er, 49erFX, Finn and Nacra classes will all sail their medal races tomorrow and New Zealand will be represented in three of those events with Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders qualifying in 6th in the Nacra, and Andrew Murdoch and Josh Junior lying 5th and 8th respectively in the Finn.
49er
With an unassailable lead Peter Burling and Blair Tuke will sail tomorrow’s 49er medal race as a formality and go on to collect the gold medal for the 2014 49er World Championships.
The fleet sailed just one race today and a 5th place for Peter Burling and Blair Tuke saw them out perform their closest rivals and consequently have a 36 point buffer going into the last day of competition.
This is a successful title defence for Burling and Tuke who now have back to back world championship victories in 2013 and 2014. Going undefeated in the 49er since they took Olympic silver in 2012, the pair has won an astounding eight major regattas on the trot.
“We are stoked with the way we have sailed this week, to have a buffer of 36 points going into the medal race tomorrow is unreal,” says Blair Tuke after racing today.
“We sailed an awesome race today to finish it off, light winds and the pressure was on so we are happy that we delivered.”
Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski have finished the series in 16th place after placing 17th in today’s race and outside the top ten medal race cut off. Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson have ended in 25th.
49erFX
In the women’s skiff class Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech have finished outside the 49erFX top ten and will be disappointed to miss out, by just two points, on tomorrow’s medal race.
The 2013 World Champions suffered in the standings from mixed results through the qualifying and finals series, but their performance wasn’t without highlights. They took a 3rd in race one, and a 2nd in race five, and the young kiwis will no doubt take the lessons from this event to build on.
Finn
New Zealand will have two sailors in the 2014 Finn World Championship medal race with both Andrew Murdoch and Josh Junior sailing well throughout the week and well inside the top ten.
The Finn class didn’t race today due to a lack of wind on their designated course area.
Murdoch says, “We didn't manage any racing today due to lack of wind. So I'm 5th overall going into tomorrow’s medal race (top 10).”
“This guarantees New Zealand a spot in the Finn class at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, one more step along the path. Due to the points gap it's a big task for a medal tomorrow but I'll be doing everything I can to make it happen.”
Josh Junior is in 8th place and just four points back from team-mate Murdoch among a tightly bunched group on the score board.
Nacra multihull
New Zealand’s Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders have qualified for the Nacra 17 mixed multihull medal race and are delighted.
The fleet sailed just one race today in which the kiwis placed 16th. They discard this last race from their points-score and retain 6th overall as they go into the high stakes final race.
“We are currently in 6th place for the medal race tomorrow with it all to play for as its very close points!” report the pair.
“Super happy to make top ten nations, and to qualify the country for the Olympics, and super happy to make the medal race!! Let’s hope there’s good wind tomorrow.”
National qualification for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games is also on offer at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships – read ISAF’s Qualification System for Rio 2016 for the details.
2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships, Santander, Spain
New Zealand’s Current Standings
Full results here
49er Skiff
1st Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (1, 4, 6, 1, 4, 1, 8, 2, 1, 1, DSQ, 5)
16th Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (1, 22, 14, 10, 6, 17, 25, 21, 16, 5, 8, 17)
25th Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson (5, 8, 5, 18, 33, 26, 21, 24, 24, 21, 18, 4)
49erFX Skiff
12th Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech (3, 8, 11, 15, 2, 14, 14, 7, 11, 24, 11, 19)
34th Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland (4, 22, 15, DNF, DNF, 3, 13, 11, 17)
Nacra 17 (mixed multihull)
6th Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders (12, 2, 5, 7, 12, 2, 13, 3, 8, 16)
Finn (men’s heavy-weight dinghy)
5th Andrew Murdoch (9, 5, 11, 24, 11, 6, 16, 2)
8th Josh Junior (12, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10, 11, 33)
Women’s 470 (double-handed dinghy)
2nd Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie
Men’s 470 (double-handed dinghy)
12th Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox
Men’s RS:X Windsurfing / 100 sailors
16th Jon-Paul Tobin
Women’s RS:X Windsurfing / 62 sailors
21st Natalia Kosinska
Laser Final Results (Men’s single-handed dinghy / 150 boats)
9th Sam Meech
14th Andy Maloney
20th Thomas Saunders
31st Mike Bullot
Laser Radial Final Results (Women’s single-handed dinghy / 120 boats)
11th Sara Winther
51st Susannah Pyatt
108th Ali Nightingale
Support and Coaching:
Jez Fanstone , Nathan Handley, Mark Howard, Dave Robertson, Ian Neely , John Cutler, Hamish Willcox, Will Howden, Peter Evans, Grant Beck, Louise Johnson, Rebecca van Weerd
Links
Regatta website
ISAF website
Yachting New Zealand website
NZL Sailing Team sailor profiles
NZL Sailing Team Facebook page
Media information
- NZL Media Releases: Yachting New Zealand will issue daily written media releases focussing on New Zealand’s performance as soon as possible after the day’s results are published. These reports will be published at yachtingnz.org.nz at the same time as release.
- Footage for TV: Sunset+Vine/APP are the host broadcaster in Santander to capture the action. Contact Sabina Mollart Rogerson on SMollartRogerson@sunsetvineapp.com
- Photography: Professional high resolution images of the NZL Sailing Team in action in Spain will be available and free for editorial use. Please contact Jodie Bakewell-White with your image requests.
For more information contact:
Jodie Bakewell-White, YNZ Communications Manager
Tel. 021 709 065
Email. jodie@yachtingnz.org.nz
About the NZL Sailing Team
The NZL Sailing Team includes New Zealand’s top Olympic campaigners who have made the top 20% in their most recent (respective) class World Championships or pinnacle event and have shown consistency of performance over the year including other significant Championships.
Yachting New Zealand’s High Performance Programme is focussed on winning medals at the Olympics in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
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.
