Kiwis reach for medals at World Championship finals

NZL Sailing Team will be represented in each of the final four medal races on Sunday, and all are within striking distance of the podium. Saturday was the penultimate day of racing for most sailors at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, and now just the top ten remain of each class in the pursuit of precious metal.

Pictured left: Andrew Murdoch battling to hold his position at the ISAF Sailing World Championships. Photo by Ocean Images

The final of the men’s RS:X windsurfing will see two New Zealanders in the mix; JP Tobin and Tom Ashley. These two men lie next to each other in the overall standings, Tom in sixth and JP in seventh, with only five points between them.

Today’s first RS:X race featured Tom Ashley leading for most of the race and he sealed the deal with a convincing first place finish. In a stable and strong breeze, Tom’s second race was also on top form, a fifth. JP had two consistent races today just behind Tom, both seventh place finishes.

Andrew Murdoch in the Laser fleet also had two better races on Saturday (a sixth and fourth) and has wound up tied in overall points with the fourth place competitor, only one point behind third, and four points behind second. He will be entering the medal race in fifth place overall and has the opportunity to make big gains toward the podium if tomorrow’s race finishes in his favour.

It was Deja-vu on Saturday for Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie in the Womens’ 470 fleet. They again had two races and the first one was very strong- they won the first race- and the second involved a boat on boat penalty with the same team as the day before! Again after their 720 degree penalty turn, they were unable to catch up and finished the second race in thirteenth.

Jo and Olivia, Team Jolly, have finished the fleet racing series in fourth place overall. They will enter the medal race on Sunday also only one point behind the third placed team and within seven points of the second placed team.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke had a trying day with a ninth, fifteenth, and twelfth place finish, but they were able to hold onto their fourth overall standing as they head into tomorrow’s medal race. Like the others, this fleet is extremely tight in the total point scores so anything may be possible as they approach the final race. Peter and Blair are only three points behind third overall, and six points behind second.

Two more country qualifications for the 2012 Olympic Games were also confirmed on Saturday, and New Zealand has now a reserved spot in all nine classes being sailed by New Zealanders in Perth. The Men’s RS:X and Women’s 470 were the last two to qualify here in Perth when they made the medal round.

All medal races will be streamed live online, and you can access the action by following this link.

The medal races will start at 1:10pm local time (6:10pm in NZ) and are aimed to be approximately a half hour each. They will be starting in one hour increments, Women’s 470 first, followed by the 49er, RS:X and lastly the Men’s Laser.

Full results including overall points can be found online the official regatta website www.perth2011.com

Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships
New Zealand’s current standings
These sailors below will be progressing to the medal races.

49er
4th Gold Fleet - Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (3, 16, 11, 5, 9, 15, 12)
470 Women
4th Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie (7, 4, 14, 25, 7, 1, 3, 17, 1, 13)
Men’s Laser
8th Gold Fleet- Andrew Murdoch (50DNF, 7, 6, 4)
RS:X Men’s
5th Gold Fleet- Tom Ashley (20, 10, 4, 1, 5)
6th Gold Fleet- JP Tobin (3, 24, 2, 7, 7)

Final Standings
49er
7th Silver Fleet- Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (18, 3, 7, 11, 11, 10, 8)
16th Bronze Fleet- Chris Burgess and Rohan Swanson (12, 18, 15, 16, 17, 17, 17)
470 Women
43rd Vicki Francis and Erica Dawson (32, 43, 43, 44, 44, 40, 43, 41, 37, 42)
Men’s Laser
13th Gold Fleet- Andy Maloney (14, 3, 11, 20)
17th Gold Fleet- Mike Bullot (38, 10, 26, 26)
34th Gold Fleet- Sam Meech (23, 41, 23, 32)
37th Gold Fleet- Josh Junior (42, 40, 7, 42)
33rd Silver Fleet- Tom Saunders (50DNC, 11, 3, 50BFD)
RS:X Men’s
11th Silver Fleet - Antonio Cozzolino (15, 5, 4, 46BFD, 13)
31st Silver Fleet- Carl Evans (14, 28, 21, 46BFD, 22)