NZL Sailing Team Update: Four Medals – two gold and two silver from Hyeres
The NZL Sailing Team has ended ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres with a four medal haul including two golds and two silvers
with a further two sailors finishing just outside the medals in fourth.
Overall victories came from New Zealand’s London Olympic medallists, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (49er), and Jo Aleh
and Polly Powrie (Women’s 470) who have both secured back to back gold medals at ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma in early
April, and now Hyeres.
Andy Maloney won silver in the Laser after a close medal race battle with Tom Burton of Australia, while Alexandra
Maloney were the other kiwi crew to win silver in Hyeres today, in the 49erFX class. In all, eight New Zealand crews
finished in the top ten in Hyeres.
For the NZL Sailing Team this marks an improved overall team performance over ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma Regatta
staged in early April 2014 where the medal haul was two gold (49er and Women’s 470) and a total of five top ten
finishes.
The results make New Zealand one of the top performing nations at this regatta with an identical medal haul to Australia
and Poland.
Women’s 470
Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie are delighted to win gold which they earned comfortably with an eight point margin over Great
Britain’s Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre. In today’s medal race the kiwis, who are current world and Olympic
champions, and ISAF Female Sailor of the Year, crossed in 4th placed to secure the win.
Powrie talks about today’s race; "It was a little bit stressful. We made it hard for ourselves. We thought we may have
been over at the start so we came back and re-started.”
"We managed to make our way back through the fleet and we still managed to come away with an overall win but still
stressful."
On the victory Powrie added, "I'm very relieved. It's really nice to win again. We put together a relatively good series
which was nice.”
“We’re happy to be heading home next.”
49er
Dominant throughout the week Peter Burling and Blair Tuke rounded out the regatta with three solid races today,
including a gun in the opener, and stand atop the podium once again.
Burling says; "I'm pretty stoked to take the win. We had a pretty big lead but it was mathematically possible to lose it
so we made sure we did the job in the first race and had a bit of fun in the last two.”
"It was really great to get out in the lead in the first race and just be able to sail away.”
"We're definitely really happy with how we backed up Palma with another win."
The silver medal went to Ryan Seaton and Mathew McGovern of Ireland while Olympic gold medallists Nathan Outteridge and
Iain Jensen came through on the final day to push kiwis Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski out of the medals and into 4th.
The younger kiwi pair sailed strongly this week and will be disappointed to miss out on a podium finish by the absolute
narrowest of margins.
Laser
Another narrow margin was that between kiwi Andy Maloney and Aussie Tom Burton in the Laser class who went into the
medal race separated by only three points. Placing 7th in today’s double-points race Maloney had to settle for silver
when Burton came home two places in front of him for the gold.
Maloney commented after racing; "It was really tough, like it always was going to be in the Medal Race. I was really
close with TB [Tom Burton] going into it. The game plan was to lead at the top mark and then evaluate from there. I knew
what I needed to do.”
"I didn't have the best of start. The French guy was on top of me so that didn't help. I was looking pretty good two
thirds up the beat and didn't have the best rounding at the top of the course but I was back in amongst it in the
downwind.”
"At the bottom gate I had another small hiccup with a yellow flag for rocking. I was then just behind Tom at the bottom
gate and in with the fight.”
"I got behind him on the final run and it was looking good right near the finish line. I was just sticking with Tom and
then the French guy just slipped in right between us.”
"It's tough to take but there are a lot of good points we can take out of this week."
Team-mate Sam Meech placed 9th in the medal race today and ends the regatta in 9th overall.
49erFX
Sailing three stadium style medal races today Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech managed to narrow the points gap on
Martine Soffiati Grael and Kahena Kunze, but the Brazilians had done enough earlier in the week to take the gold, and
the kiwi pair come away with the silver medal.
Maloney and Meech will be pleased with this performance after they failed to make the medal race at ISAF Sailing World
Cup Palma where they finished in 11th.
Finn
Josh Junior also improved on his result from Palma, where he finished 16th, ending this regatta on a high note for 4th
place overall. In today’s medal race Junior came home in 2nd which saw him leap-frog into 4th.
Women’s RS:X
Natalia Kosinska raced in the Women’s RS:X medal race today placing 5th and ending the six day regatta in 7th overall.
For her this is also an improvement from the recent Palma regatta where she finished outside the top ten in 12th place.
From here a number of the NZL Sailing Team return to New Zealand for a short break before their next major
international, while some will stay on in Europe. Click here for the 2014 calendar of Olympic class events.
ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres; New Zealand’s Final Results
Women’s 470 (51 boats)
1stJo Aleh and Polly Powrie - NZL Sailing Team
49er (79 boats)
1stPeter Burling and Blair Tuke – NZL Sailing Team
4thMarcus Hansen and Josh Porebski – NZL Sailing Team
58th Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock
49erFX (42 boats)
2ndAlexandra Maloney and Molly Meech – NZL Sailing Team
Finn (59 boats)
4th Josh Junior – NZL Sailing Team
21stAndrew Murdoch – NZL Sailing Team
Laser (123 boats)
2ndAndy Maloney – NZL Sailing Team
9thSam Meech – NZL Sailing Team
15thThomas Saunders – NZL Sailing Team
97th Andrew McKenzie
Women’s RS:X (58 windsurfers)
7thNatalia Kosinska – NZL Sailing Team
Men’s 470 (81 boats)
29thPaul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox – NZL Sailing Team
Men’s RS:X (91 windsurfers)
18th Jon-Paul Tobin
Nacra 17 (77 boats)
13thGemma Jones and Jason Saunders – NZL Sailing Team
54th Rachel Basevi and Tomer Simhony
66th Vicky Francis and Geoff Woolley
Laser Radial (79 boats)
18th Sara Winther
64th Ali Nightingale – NZL Yachting Trust Youth Team
Coaches and support: Nathan Handley, Mark Howard, Ian Neely, Dave Robertson, John Cutler, Hamish Willcox, Steve
Erickson, Peter Evans and Will Howden
How to follow the NZL Sailing Team at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres
Yachting New Zealand will issue a written media release daily updating you on the progress and standings of the New
Zealand sailors; our daily updates will be published on yachtingnz.org.nz. And you can follow the NZL Sailing Team on Facebook.
For full results and extra information, head to the regatta website.
Event media will be providing high resolution images and tv quality footage and Yachting New Zealand can help media with
access on request. Please contact Jodie Bakewell-White (details below).
Links
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.
ends