Two medals won in 49er at Genoa World Cup
New Zealand sailors collected two medals last night (NZ time) and have a chance of winning another tonight as the Hempel
World Cup Series regatta in Genoa comes to a close.
Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie won silver in the 49er, finishing just ahead of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in
third. Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox rocketed up the standings from 14th to second in the men's 470 overnight and
have a good chance of winning New Zealand's third medal at this regatta.
It would represent a decent haul at what has been a treacherously difficult regatta, with light winds, postponements and
abandoned races besetting the event.
The strong New Zealand 49er squad once again showed their depth, with all four finishing inside the top 20 in Genoa.
McHardie and McKenzie, the youngest combination among the quartet, went into the medal race in fourth but climbed into
silver medal position by finishing second in the top 10 medal race.
"The points were pretty close [going into the race] so our goal today was to race the best we could and hope the points
fell into place," McKenzie said. "We are pretty happy to take out silver.
"With the past week of racing in such light and fickle conditions, it was extremely important to stay calm and focused.
We are extremely happy with how we performed at this regatta and hope to carry this form to upcoming regattas."
Burling and Tuke also walk away from Genoa satisfied after their first World Cup Series regatta in three years.
They had ambitions of winning gold, having gone into the medal race in second and only six points behind Australian
brothers David and Lachy Gilmour, but were always playing catchup after a difficult start.
"We're a little bit disappointed not to have put a better race together... and after the start we didn't give ourselves
a good opportunity to do that," Tuke said. "Nevertheless, we fought hard and it's still nice to get a medal, whatever
the colour, especially here because it has been a tricky week and we're just back in the boat.
"Things are coming back [to us] pretty fast. There are things we are not doing as well [as in the last Olympic campaign]
and other things we are probably doing better. It's all putting it together that we are struggling with at the moment.
But we still got third and there's plenty of improvement so we are pretty happy and looking forward to getting more
races under our belt. We are loving sailing back in the 49er."
Snow-Hansen and Willcox enjoyed their day in the men's 470 on the back of a first and fifth in their two races. They are
now three points behind Zangiun Xu and Chao Wang of China going into their medal race and also hold a seven-point buffer
on third.
"We finally got off the line in good shape, making clean lines a lot easier," Snow-Hansen said. "We're looking forward
to the medal race. Fingers crossed we get some breeze."
The Nacra 17 medal race got some of the best conditions of the penultimate day, sailing in 7-9 knots, and Gemma Jones
and Jason Saunders led for most of the race before being overtaken on the final downwind. Their fourth-placing meant
they jumped up to seventh overall and they showed good speed at times in the light conditions during the regatta.
Susannah Pyatt and Brianna Reynolds-Smith finished 23rd overall in the women's 470 and Olivia Christie was 31st and
Annabelle Rennie-Younger 43rd in the Laser Radial.
Results and standings after day 6 of the Hempel World Cup Series regatta in Genoa overnight (NZ time):
Nacra 17 (45 boats)
1st: Iker Martinez / Olga Maslivets (ESP) 4 4 1 (16) 1 3 6 4 - 23 points
2nd: Ben Saxton / Nicola Boniface (GBR) 1 1 2 (6) 1 4 3 12 - 24 pts
3rd: Santiago Lange / Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG) 5 2 7 (14) 3 9 2 2 - 30 pts
7th: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) (24 UFD) 1 3 7 7 5 14 8 - 45 pts
49er (65 boats)
1st: David Gilmour / Lachy Gilmour (AUS) 2 7 2 8 12 (33) 19 1 5 8 - 64 pts
2nd: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 1 2 8 17 (29) 3 5 9 19 4 - 68 pts
2nd: Peter Burling / Blair Tuke (NZL) 14 15 10 3 4 2 9 5 (22) 12 - 74 pts
13th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) (19) 4 14 19 14 4 10 8 17 - 91 pts
17th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) (34 UFD) 23 6 1 8 24 12 2 23 - 99 pts
49erFX (50 boats)
1st: Odile van Aanholt / Marieke Jongens (NED) 5 11 1 1 1 (20) 3 6 13 2 - 43 pts
2nd: Carlotta Omari / Matilda Distefano (ITA) (13) 3 2 7 13 3 2 1 2 14 - 47 pts
3rd: StephanieRoble / Margaret Shea (USA) 1 8 7 7 4 6 (22) 10 6 4 - 53 pts
23rd: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech 3 15 13 3 8 (25) 23 25 22 - 112 pts
Men's 470 (44 boats)
1st: Zangiun Xu / Chao Wang (CHN) (24) 12 12 1 8 14 - 47 pts
2nd: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) 18 6 20 (33) 1 5 - 50 pts
3rd: Kilian Wagen / Gregoire Siegwart (SUI) 14 (30) 4 4 17 18 - 57 pts
Women's 470 (35 boats)
1st: Fernanda Oliveira / Ana Luiza Barbachan (BRA) 2 (5) 3 1 1 1 - 8 pts
2nd: Benedetta di Salle / Alessandra Dubbini (ITA) (24) 2 9 3 14 8 - 36 pts
3rd: Elena Berta / Bianca Caruso (ITA) 13 9 (19) 7 4 4 - 37 pts
23rd: Susannah Pyatt / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) (27) 16 18 25 16 13 - 87 pts
Laser Radial (67 boats)
1st: Dongshuang Zhang (CHN) (5) 1 1 3 2 1 - 8 pts
2nd: Vasileia Karachaliou (GRE) 2 2 5 1 (35 UFD) 2 - 12 pts
3rd: Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) 2 1 2 3 (15) 7 - 15 pts
31st: Olivia Christie (NZL) 9 (33) 10 21 23 23 - 86 pts
Silver fleet
43rd: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) 30 18 (33) 28 1 4 - 81 pts