NZ Match Racing Champs - Young gun takes the lead on Day 2
by Georgia Derrick, RNZYS Media on 15 Nov 2015
George Anyon and his crew Logan Adresen, Jacob Wills and Josh Wijohn RNZYS Media
The 2015 New Zealand Match Racing Championships continued Saturday, with the days racing providing tough competition for some skippers, but producing a clear top four to proceed into the finals tomorrow.
The two highest scoring skippers from today’s round robin were Dave Hazard’s RNZYS KZ Marine team of Scott Barnes, Benny Butcher and Sam Meech with 6 wins from 7 flights. Matched by the Noumean Tugdual Piriou with his CNC team of Pierre Vaudelet, Yann Rigal and Joss Dupont, Piriou who also took 6 wins from 7 flights. Piriou has competed at the event for several years and could be set to finally claim the title.
The biggest surprise of the day came from RNZYS Youth Training Programme Skipper Stephanie Kirkman beating Chris Steele in flight 4. Steele was over at the start and gave the girls a strong lead until the very end, with Kirkman taking only a 2 second win. - We look forward to seeing what’s in store for Kirkman and her all girls team in the future.
Steele and his RNZYS/ 36 below racing team finished fourth after the round robins and will progress into the semi-finals, continuing to be the ‘team to beat’.
Young skipper Anyon has scored most consistently over the two days finishing the double round robin with 11 wins from 14 races. Anyon described the racing as “just another day” giving credit to his team Logan Adresen, Jacob Wills and Josh Wijohn saying “It makes it easy when we run the boat well”. Anyon is going into tomorrow racing looking for “more of the same”.
The top four skippers from the round robin racing will progress to the finals tomorrow. Stay tuned to see how the finals will pan out tomorrow.
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