NZL qualifies for two Olympic events

After more action on the racecourse today, New Zealand is officially qualified for a spot on the start line of the 2012 Olympic Games in two classes; the Laser Radial and Women’s RS:X. Two more days of finals racing remain at the ISAF Sailing World Championships for the first four fleets, and it is looking promising that NZL will qualify the nation in the Men’s 470 and Finn classes too.

In the match racing event, the NZL Sailing Team has also had a day of good news, they have placed sixth overall in their round robin pool and will be progressing to the second round robin. This is a significant achievement for this team that has been sailing together for less than one year.

Now that the fleets have been split into Gold and Silver, racing on each course tends to be tighter. Today the Finn and 470 had only one race each in fantastic conditions of 14-18 knots, while the Women on RS:X and Laser Radial had three races.

Sara Winther and Miranda Powrie sailed the Radial today in a strong and unstable breeze, taking NZ’s top results for the day, a fourth and eighth respectively. “It was very choppy and shifty, and getting results was a bit like playing snakes and ladders” Miranda said.

Paul and Jason in the 470 placed 13th in their only race today, and maintain an overall ranking within the top ten.

The Race Committee here in Fremantle have done a great job of bringing racing back to schedule after the abandonment of Tuesday’s racing. Tomorrow, the Women’s RS:X and Laser Radial fleets will have a rest day, and the Men’s 470 and Finn will resume two races per day as originally planned.

The Men’s 470 gold fleet will race tomorrow in the centre course of Bathers Bay, providing a great opportunity for observers and close boat-on-boat racing.

Next Monday, the Men’s RS:X, Women’s 470, Men’s 49er and Laser class will commence racing for their chance to qualify the nation ahead of the 2012 Olympic games at the 2011 Sailing World Championships.

Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships
New Zealand’s Current Standings

470 Men
8th Gold Fleet - Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders (13)
17th Silver Fleet - Luke Stevenson and Sam Bullock (4)
18th Silver Fleet- James Turner and Matthew Jones (9)
29th Silver Fleet- Mike Snow-Hansen and Derek Snow (31)
31st Silver Fleet- Gareth Moore and Ben Goodwin (22)

Laser Radial
11th Gold Fleet - Sara Winther (4, 26, 15)
33rd Gold Fleet - Miranda Powrie (45, 8, 32)
7th Silver Fleet - Rachel Basevi (1, 8, 52DNS)

Finn
25th Gold Fleet -Dan Slater (23)
28th Gold Fleet-Matt Coutts (26)
16th Silver Fleet- Nik Burfoot (12)
22nd Silver Fleet- Brad Douglas (23)
34th Silver Fleet- Rob Coutts (32)

RS:X Womens
29th Gold Fleet - Steff Williams (34, 27, 23)
2nd Silver Fleet -Natalia Kosinska (1, 2, 9)
9th Silver Fleet- Justina Sellers (4, 17, 3)

Womens Match Racing
Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt
8 Wins, 6 Loss- progressing to Stage 2 Round Robin

Read full results online the official website here


About this event
The Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships feature the world’s best sailors in all ten Olympic classes from over 80 nations. Over 1200 Sailors will take part, contending for country qualification for the 2012 Olympic Games, and the World Championship titles.

The event officially opened on December 3rd with the start of the Women’s Match Racing and this class will race for the duration of the event, due to the round-robin format of match racing. All other classes will have seven days of racing that conclude with a double point medal race for the top ten.

The first week of racing (December 5 – 11) will feature the Women’s RS:X windsurfer, Women’s single person dinghy class Laser Radial, Men’s double handed class 470 and the Men’s one person dinghy heavy, the Finn class.

The second week of racing (December 12-18) will have all other classes compete, the Men’s RS:X Windsurfer, Men’s single person dinghy class Laser, Women’s double handed class 470, Men’s Skiff 49er. The Men’s Star class keelboat will race December 11-17

Visit the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships for results, tracking, live updates, and much more news from on and off the water. www.perth2011.com

A daily TV programme of approximately 25 minutes will also be available online www.sailing.org/tv

‘Like’ the NZL Sailing Team on Facebook for the news and results as they happen.