Maloney and Meech make their move at Enoshima Olympic Week
Maloney and Meech make their move at Enoshima Olympic
Week
Another typhoon is starting to gather momentum and so are Alex Maloney and Molly Meech at the Enoshima Olympic Week regatta in Japan.
Alex Maloney and Molly
Meech won three races in the 49erFX today.
The 49erFX Rio
silver medallists had a poor first day by their standards
but roared back with three bullets and a second place in
today's four races to jump from seventh to first, level on
points with the German pair of Victoria Jurczok and Anika
Lorenz.
New Zealand's Erica Dawson and Kate Stewart round
out the top three after another solid day but Maloney and
Meech were in ominous form today in the building breeze of
12-17 knots.
"We had a pretty average start to the
regatta yesterday but it was also really good learning,"
Meech said. "It was quite tricky, light winds at the Olympic
venue [yesterday]. It was cool to suss it out and try to get
a feel for what it’s going to be like but it was really
nice to go out and have a solid day today."
Maloney
likened it to sailing on Auckland's North Shore, with a
fresh breeze and reasonably flat water today at the venue
for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
"It was good to have a few
low scores today," Maloney said. "The points are still close
[with Germany] so we’re going to have to go out and smash
three good races tomorrow."
Paul Snow Hansen and Dan
Willcox also made a big move up the leaderboard of the men's
470. They started the day in 16th but three top-five
finishes, including a win in the first race of the day,
propelled them up to fifth and only three points off a
podium spot.
Andrew McKenzie has had a mixed regatta but
was third in one race today.
The picture also looks
promising in both the 49er and Laser.
The world champion
British pair of Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell dominated
the day with four wins in the 49er fleet but Logan Dunning
Beck and Oscar Gunn banked three top-five scores and are
level on points with James Peters and Fynn Sterritt of Great
Britain in second. Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey are only
three points further behind in fourth.
Tom Sanders scored
his second win of the regatta and is third overall in the
Laser fleet, only seven points off leader Lorenzo Brando
Chiavarini of Great Britain. Sam Meech is fourth, although
he wasn't happy with how he sailed.
"It wasn’t the best
day for me," the Olympic bronze medallist said. "I had two
reasonable races and the last one I was going OK but I
really messed up. Kind of a day to forget.
"I will need
to get some better races if I want to pull up overall.
Hopefully it works well tomorrow."
A lot could depend on
the weather, with the 22nd typhoon to hit Japan this year
due to make landfall late on Sunday. It's not expected to be
as powerful as last weekend's Typhoon Lan that caused
considerable damage to Enoshima but it could disrupt sailing
tomorrow and is supposed to bring heavy rain.
The New
Zealand sailors will feel comfortable in stronger breezes,
which are forecast to be around 18-22 knots in the afternoon
but strengthen considerably into the evening.
"It should
be sweet-as in the morning but the afternoon might be a bit
gnarly so I’m not sure what the race committee will do,"
Porebski said. "It might be tricky to get much racing in
because it’s going to pick up pretty fast. We had one last
week and we saw what it can do so it’s definitely
something to look out for.
"If it’s sailable, we’re
pretty happy out there in big breeze and big waves. We have
had plenty of it this year. [Last week in] Gamagori was the
first light regatta of the year so we are used to
it."
Susannah Pyatt is 14th in the Laser Radial and her
day was highlighted by a fourth in the second race of the
day.
Results and standings after the second day
of Enoshima Olympic Week regatta in Enoshima, Japan,
today:
Laser (54
boats)
1st: Lorenzo Brando
Chiavarini (GBR) 2 2 8 10 2 (32) - 24 points
2nd: Matthew
Wearn (AUS) 3 4 14 1 (26) 4 - 26 pts
3rd: Tom
Saunders (NZL) 7 9 1 13 (25) 1 - 31
pts
4th: Sam Meech (NZL) 10 6 11 12 8
(25) - 47 pts
14th: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 28 7 20 3 (32)
17 - 75 pts
Laser
Radial (51 boats)
1st: Erika
Reineke (USA) 3 3 1 (DNF) 1 3 - 11 pts
2nd: Vasileia
Karachaliou (GRE) 4 (UFD) 2 8 3 10 - 27 pts
3rd: Tatiana
Drozdovskaya (BLR) (22) 9 6 4 2 8 - 29 pts
14th:
Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 27 1 (32) 25 4 15 - 72
pts
49er (19
boats)
1st: Dylan Fletcher /
Stuart Bithell (GBR) 2 (9) 1 1 1 1 - 6 pts
2nd: James
Peters / Fynn Sterritt (GBR) (7) 6 3 6 2 2 - 19
pts
3rd: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 5
2 2 5 (8) 5 - 19 pts
4th: Josh Porebski
/ Trent Rippey (NZL) (11) 5 7 2 4 4 - 22
pts
8th: Isaac McHardie / William
McKenzie (NZL) 6 (16) 10 7 3 13 - 39
pts
49erFX (12
boats)
1st: Alex
Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) (9) 4 1 1 2 1 - 9
pts
2nd: Victoria Jurczok / Anika Lorenz (GER)
(8) 1 2 3 1 2 - 9 pts
3rd: Erica Dawson / Kate
Stewart (NZL) 2 5 6 4 4 3 - 18 pts
Men's
470
1st: Luke Patience / Chris
Grube (GBR) (21) 1 14 3 1 1 - 20 pts
2nd: Daichi Takayama
/ Kimihiko Imamura (JPN) (9) 6 3 5 3 5 - 22 pts
3rd:
David Bargehr / David Bargehr (AUT) (18) 15 4 4 2 2 - 27
pts
5th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Daniel Willcox (NZL)
5 (19) 16 1 5 3 - 30 pts