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Back to the Future - Olympic Gold Medalists return to Kohimaramara YC

by Richard Gladwell on 24 Sep 2012
Jo Aleh leads Olivia Powrie back in the P-Class at Kohimaramara Yacht Club Sunday Sptember 23, 2012 . Richard Gladwell www.photosport.co.nz

Just a decade ago 2012 Olympic Gold Medalists, Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie were sailing at Auckland's Kohimaramara Yacht Club.

Both feature on the Championship Boards at the Club for the P-Class, in a long lineage of sailing champions, stretching back to the mid-1950's. The P-Class is widely credited as being the unique boat that forms New Zealand's top sailors including America's Cup skippers, Russell Coutts, Dean Barker, Chris Dickson and many more.

On Sunday the Club staged its Opening Day Regatta, and went to the effort to track down the two P-Class sailed by the two Gold Medalists. The two Olympians got back in their boats and sailed in the opening race of the season. For both it was their first time in a yacht since the 2012 Olympics, and a reminder of how it all began.

Later the pair showed off their Gold Medals to a scrum of junior sailors, and posed for photographs, after which the Club awarded them Life Membership in recognition of their achievements in Weymouth.

Sail-World's cameras caught the highlights of the day and http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/golden-girls-back-water-video-5099988!click_here to see how TVNZ's Martin Tasker, and cameraman Bruce Adams, saw the day.












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