Team Jolly - Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie update ahead of 2015 Worlds

by Sail-World.com NZL on 30 Sep 2015 Team Jolly - Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie - the 2012 Olympic Gold medalists in the Womens 470 - update on their current campaign status post the Pre-Olympics at Rio and ahead of the 2015 World Championships in Israel.


So, it’s been a busy last two months! As usual!!

So, to begin, let’s rewind to August, when we were back in Rio, competing in the Olympic Test event.. We started off having a bit of a shocker. We were struggling with pace, struggling to make the right decisions, and just not finding our groove at all. Not helped in any way by Jo being sick from a few days before, and Polly coming down with something part way through, it was not a pretty event. After being in ninth place halfway through, we were rather fed up and got angry enough to spark ourselves up and smash out the last three races, with first, first, and third, to jump us up into third place going into the medal race – With four boats very close behind, and the Brits and the Americans well clear in front.

We continued our late form with a solid second in the medal race to stay on the podium and win the bronze medal, not exactly what we were looking for going in, but for where we were halfway through, we were very happy! Also it was a step up from our 2011 Olympic Test event where we got fourth, so forward progress, just!

From there it was back home to NZ for Polly, and off to Holland for Jo, who strangely decided to compete in the 220km, five day, SUP 11 City Tour around the north of Holland.

While not a usual post regatta rest time activity, it was something very different and a great challenge! Having been sailing and racing all year, there wasn’t really much time for paddling, so it was a bit of a leap of faith to see if she could actually do it!

After plenty of pain, blisters and rather extreme muscle soreness (and plenty of complaining about trying to walk down steps or pick things up off the ground) she managed to complete the race and even place second overall in the Women’s division. Quite a surprise! No one quite knew what to make of a sailor turning up and doing that well! Ha, see, we are athletes…

And now.. we are in a different country yet again! This time, Israel. We are in the north, in Haifa, getting ready to compete in first the Israeli Nationals, and after that the World Champs starting on the 12th of October. We are once again having a few container issues, so we haven’t actually seen our boat yet, but we are assured it is here and we will hopefully see it tomorrow! They seem rather committed to making sure this World Champs all goes smoothly, so we will see how we get on. We are really looking forward to getting out on the water – the 29 degree water – and seeing if we can smash it and have some fun!!6

We will do daily updates and stuff on our Facebook page, hopefully some good ones!

To see more updates from Team Jolly click here