London Olympics- Day 7 - Half NZ Team inside top five of their fleets

by Kristine Lederis, Yachting on 5 Aug 2012
More than half of the New Zealand Sailing crews are now ranked inside the top five after a day of low scores at the Olympic sailing venue in Weymouth.

JP Tobin, Andrew Murdoch, and both of New Zealand’s 470 teams made gains today, with the 470 girls scoring a second and fifth places in their two races, and the 470 men a sixteenth and third places. Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie are ranked first overall in these early stages of the women’s regatta, while Paul Snow Hansen with Jason Saunders are third in the men’s, as they are now able to discard their disqualification from Day 1.

Aleh and Powrie found they also had a protest against them when they returned to dock, last night. The outcome is not known at this stage, or the circumstances.

'Results wise overall, I don’t pay too much attention' said Paul Snow Hansen after sailing today. 'We just go race by race and I feel like we’re racing quite well but could improve, so just looking to keep doing what we’re doing'.

Andrew Murdoch also had a day of big gains jumping up the leader board in the last two races of the opening series, and qualifying for the final medal race ranked fifth overall.

'I had a great day today, picked up two third place races; obviously a little bit too little too late, it would have been great to have this day earlier in the regatta' he said after racing.

'Being in fifth place I don’t think I have a shot at a medal but will be going out there giving it everything and will be looking to take the race out.'

JP Tobin also improved his overall standing today with a twelfth and sixth place finish, and he too will be looking for some low scores tomorrow in his last two opening series races before qualifying for the medal round.

Sara Winther’s Olympic regatta ended on a high point today, finishing her last race in ninth with a ranking of 20th overall. The Women’s Match Racing crew of Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt are also done racing, having lost their final round robin match to the Russians and the overall points tie break with the Dutch team, they will not be progressing to the quarter final.

Today was a rest day for the Finn, Star and 49er.

Tomorrow will bring the medal races for the Men’s Star (at 1300 local time) and Finn (at 1400 local time) classes, and continued racing for the Women’s 470, Men’s 49er, and RS:X. It will be a rest day for the Men’s 470, and Men’s Laser.

Current Standings- Day 7 – August 4th, 2012

1st Jo Aleh/Polly Powrie (470 W) after 4 of 11 races (2, 7, 2, 5)

2nd Peter Burling/Blair Tuke (49er) after 11 of 16 races (9, 7, 1, 7, 3, 5, 9, 11, 7, 2, 1)

3rd Paul Snow Hansen/ Jason Saunders (470 M) after 6 of 11 races (28DSQ, 3, 5, 4, 16, 3)

5th Andrew Murdoch (Laser) after 10 of 11 races (12, 8, 17, 18, 1, 7, 13, 15, 3, 3)

5th JP Tobin (RS:X) after 8 of 11 races (15, 4, 3, 7, 8, 8, 12, 6)

8th Hamish Pepper/ Jim Turner (Star) after 10 of 11 races (15, 7, 1, 13, 6, 5, 9, 8, 8, 9)

9th Dan Slater (Finn) after 10 of 11 races (7, 12, 1, 6, 17, 11, 6, 15)


Final Standings

20th Sara Winther (Laser Radial)

9th Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt (Match Racing)

Full Results can be found online the Official Event Website www.london2012.com/sailing