The massive turnaround in fortunes of Jo Aleh and Molly Meech in the women’s skiff (49er) was the talking point in the New Zealand sailing camp today.
Aleh and Meech have not had huge success yet together as a 49er team but both are vastly experienced. Aleh has won Olympic gold and silver and Meech has a silver, so they know their way around a boat.
But on the first two days of this Olympic competition, sailed in extremely light winds, they recorded placings of 15, 17, 20, 9, 17, 8. This in a field of 20. It seemed scarcely credible.
In much stronger winds today, the two New Zealanders were outstanding and recorded 3, 2, 1 to lift themselves from the tail of the field into 8th and with a shot still of snatching a medal.
“It was special to go across the line first,” Meech said. “We’ve worked hard and sacrificed a lot to get here. After those first couple of days we wanted to pick ourselves up and make ourselves and New Zealand proud and we did that, so that’s pretty cool.”
Aleh said they enjoyed the conditions far more today. “We like to stretch our legs. We think we can get good boat speed and we felt much better out there today.”
The New Zealand men’s skiff (49er) team of Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie, by contrast, had a forgettable day, after lighting up the event over the first two days.
Going into today, they held a clear lead over Ireland and Spain. But things turned around when the New Zealanders placed 11th, 18th and 16th in the windier conditions. They relinquished their lead in the contest and are now in a dogfight for medals. Spain lead with 35 points from Ireland (46) and New Zealand (49). Britain (56) and Poland (58) are also within challenging distance.
In the men’s windsurfing, Josh Armit had a mixed time of it with placings of 18, 1, 14, 8, DQ. The result is that after six races, he lies in 10th position in the field of 24 and with serious work to do to get back into medal contention.
Veerle ten Have has been having a tough time in the women’s windsurfing and today recorded 16, 8, 18, 5, 12, which means that after seven races she is in 16th position.