French Olympic Sailing Week concludes – Two top six for NZL

Sara Winther has finished fifth, and Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie have finished sixth at 2010 French Olympic Sailing Week which wrapped up overnight after six days of competition in Hyeres, France.

The final day of the regatta, like the previous five, tested sailors with light and shifty winds. Only the top ten medal races were sailed, and the remaining New Zealand sailors’ final positions were determined on the penultimate day of the regatta.

In last night’s medal race Sara Winther crossed the line in sixth place, which secured her the top five result at this ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta. Fifth in the 80 strong Laser Radial fleet is Winther’s personal best in a major European Olympic class regatta.

In the Women’s 470 New Zealand pair Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie went into the medal race lying seventh overall. They crossed the finish in third place which saw them gain one spot to conclude the regatta in sixth overall.

The result for Aleh and Powrie continues the theme of being well inside the top ten since they launched their Olympic 470 campaign in 2009.

So far this year they were fifth at Princess Sofia Regatta in Spain in March, and third at International 470 Spring Cup Regatta in Marseille earlier in April.

The next major Olympic class event is Delta Lloyd Regatta starting May 26th in Medemblik, Netherlands. Delta Lloyd Regatta is the next in the 2009-2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup series.

The New Zealand team was supported by coaches Laurie Jury and Mark Howard.

Full results and news are available on the regatta website.

2010 French Olympic Sailing Week
New Zealand’s Final Results

Women’s Match Racing (22 entries)
14th Samantha Osborne, Raynor Smeal and Jenna Hansen

Laser (141 entries)
15th Andy Maloney (18, 19, 14, 20, 6, 31, 7, 20, 10)
18th Andrew Murdoch (8, 4, 34, 6, 13, 10, 34, 22, 26)
32nd Josh Junior (1, 27, 4, 27, 25, 36, 12, 31, 32)
49th Mike Bullot (7, 36, BFD, 23, 1, 1, 2, 36, 7)
51st Sam Meech (24, 26, 15, 16, 6, 29, 7, 2, 42)
54th Max Andrews (36, 4, 21, 26, 7, 30, 9, 12, 25)

Laser Radial (80 entries)
5th Sara Winther – (4, 13, 6, 9, 22, 3, 8, 6)

470 Men (90 entries)
52nd Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders – (38, 32, 8, 22, 22, BFD, 5, 3)

470 Women (44 entries)
6th Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie – (2, 17, 22, 11, 7, 8, 2, 3)

RS:X Women (39 entries)
29th Jazmine Lynch – (10, 23, 33, 27, 34, 24, 31)

Finn (52 entries)
29th Matt Coutts – (BFD, 25, 24, 27, 21, 20, 40)

New Zealand’s Coaching Team
Laurie Jury
Mark Howard