Burling and Tuke back on track

Burling and Tuke back on track

Defending Olympic champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke got their men’s 49er sailing campaign back on track today with three strong races.

Burling and Tuke, who have won silver and gold in the last two Olympics, made a less than satisfactory start to their Tokyo defence when they finished 12th of the 19 boats. But today they peeled off placings of 3rd, 7th and 2nd. That has lifted them to fourth place overall.

They could have done slightly better too. Afterwards the two men were kicking themselves for giving away a few places at the end of the second race today.

“Yep, we were a bit disappointed with that one,” Burling said. “We dropped a few placings right at the end. You never want to leave points on the table.”

Burling said it was nice to get three races in a day under their belts after a slightly frustrating first day when two races were unable to be held. “The boat was going nicely and we are happy enough with how things are.”

The 49er women, Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, certainly finished the day happier than they began it. After a disastrous first day, they recorded placings of 12th, 4th, 4th and moved up the 21-strong field to now lie in 9th overall.

The men’s 470 team of Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox got into the competition swing today and were 6th and 2nd in their two races. They finished the day 2nd overall of the 18 in their event.

“We’re very happy with that,” said Willcox. “We’d have been happy just to be in the top 10, but it was very sweet. A medium wind and big waves – it felt great.”

The nacre (mixed multihull) began today and New Zealanders Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson were consistency personified, finishing 11th, 12th, 13th to be placed 12th overall out of the 20 boats entered.

John Junior had two good races in the finn contest, finishing 3rd and 7th and is now 8th overall in a fleet of 19.