A lack of wind on the final day of the Finn Gold Cup left the NZL Sailing Teams Dan Slater ranked 16th at the end of the 2012 Finn World Championship in England. Meanwhile in Spain at the 470 World Championships, Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie are still in third but have reeled in the leaders before tomorrows medal race.
Although Dan did not quite make the Finn medal race, he did better his result from last years world championship by five places. Matt Coutts also bettered his own by six points, finishing with a personal best score of 22nd overall.
The Finn Gold Cup was won for a record sixth time by Ben Ainslie (GBR), and he will celebrate this victory by being the first torch bearer for the start of the Olympic Torch Relay tonight (NZT).
On the final day of series racing for the 2012 470 World Championship, NZ Womens pairing Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie held on to their third place position, and will go into tomorrow medal race ranked as such. In two races, they reeled in those few points between them and the lead boats (GBR and NED); both are tied and just one point ahead of the Olympic bound NZ 470 team.
It is quite impressive." Jo said in relation to the closeness of the top boats. "I havent really looked at the results, it is going to be a pretty good race tomorrow. Somebodys going to be pretty annoyed at the end of it."
Jo and Olivia will go into tomorrows double point medal race with a guarantee to finish inside the top five overall, and a spot on the podium could be given to any crew in that top five. The medal race for the women starts live at 11:15am local time (1:15am Sunday morning NZT), and live tracking can be viewed online the event website http://worlds.470.org
Paul Snow Hansen and Jason Saunders, the NZL Sailing Team Mens 470 crew improved their overall rank in their two races today, now up to 22nd overall. They will face one final race tomorrow for the remaining gold fleet that are not in the medal race.
In Germany, Sara Winther had an unlucky two opening races in the gold fleet at the Laser Radial World Championships, she received a black flag penalty in both races for being over the start line too early within the minute prior to start. The points awarded in a race with this penalty are equal to the last place finisher + 1, in this fleet its a whopping 68 points.
Sara has dropped back to 32nd overall, but there are still four more races over two full race days at the Radial World Championships which end on Sunday night (NZT).
Jo Aleh with Olivia Powrie, Paul Snow Hansen with Jason Saunders and Sara Winther will all be representing New Zealand at the 2012 Olympic Games ten weeks from now. New Zealand has qualified a nations spot for the Finn but a selection decision has not yet been confirmed.
May 19th Final Standings
Finn Gold Cup (World Championship)
94 boats, after 9 races
16th Dan Slater
22nd Matt Coutts
59th Rob Coutts
May 19th Current Standings
470 Womens World Championship
54 boats, after 12 races
3rd - Jo Aleh & Olivia (Polly) Powrie
470 Mens World Championship
95 boats, after 12 races
22nd - Paul Snow Hansen & Jason Saunders
Laser Radial World Championship
133 boats, after 8 races
32nd - Sara Winther
The RS:X World Championships were sailed in March, and JP Tobin came away with a Bronze medal, setting the bar high for the team to follow. Andy Maloney grabbed up a bronze medal at the Laser World Championships which finished on May 10th. One day later, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke finished the 49er World Championships with a silver medal.
