Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie carried on a fine tradition when they clinched the men’s skiff (49er) silver medal in the waters off Marseille today.
Blair Tuke and Peter Burling have sailed the event for New Zealand in the past three Olympics, winning silver in 2012, gold in 2016 and silver in Tokyo in 2021.
“We know what Blair and Pete have done in this boat and it feels great to keep that legacy going for New Zealand," said McKenzie. Tuke and Burling, who are busy preparing for America’s Cup action in Spain, have kept in touch with their Olympic successors, offering encouragement and advice.
McHardie and McKenzie began the final race, the double-points medal race, in third place on 76 points, Spain led with 66 points and Ireland were second on 73. Also looming were the USA on 80.
In the final race today, the New Zealanders sailed conservatively. They couldn’t do anything about Spain, who hardly put a foot wrong, but finishing third was good enough to tie up the silver medal.
“We just wanted to sail a clean, well-executed race, and we managed that,” said McKenzie.
McHardie said it felt great to finally get out on the water and finish the medal race, after it was started twice yesterday then abandoned. “It’s a sweet feeling now, awesome. We’re worked for this for seven years. We knew when we started sailing together we could achieve great things.
“We stayed pretty calm out there but going round the last mark, there was a feeling of ‘Let’s get it done.’”
The gold medal-winning Spaniards finished on 70 points, with New Zealand (82) next, then USA (88) and Ireland (91) in fourth place.
Over the whole regatta McHardie and McKenzie recorded placings of 1, 3, 8, 8, 1, 1, 11, 18, 17, 1, 10, 15, 3.
Jo Aleh and Molly Meech in the New Zealand women’s skiff (49er) placed seventh, after snatching a fourth place in the double-points medal race.
Considering Aleh and Meech had a nightmare start to their campaign and were at the bottom of the field after five races, they fought back exceedingly well. The pair, both Olympic medallists already, obviously thrived in stronger wind conditions.
They were an unusual combination in that Aleh, with Olympic gold and silver in her locker, moved into coaching and became a New Zealand team coach. Meech, an Olympic silver medallist in 2016, said she looked upon Aleh as something of a role model earlier in her career.
When Aleh decided she’d like to have another shot at sailing in the Olympics, she and Meech teamed up and they’ve worked hard to get their partnership up to international level and ready for the Olympics, and also the forthcoming women's America's Cup.
“It was a tough week here,” said Aleh. ‘I’m grateful to represent New Zealand again and very grateful to do it with this one [nodding to Meech].”
Meech described their partnership as “an incredible journey and a lot of fun”.
Their placings in the regatta were: 15, 17, 20, 9, 17, 8, 3, 2, 1, 14, 8, 7, 4.
In the men's dinghy today, Tom Saunders had placings of 10 and 7 to lie fifth overall after four races. And in the women's dinghy, Greta Pilkington had placings of 34 and 41 today and is 36th overall after three races.