Laser Radial Worlds - Kiwis locked in Olympic selection fight - Day 2

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com on 16 Apr 2016 The points gap has narrowed between the two leading New Zealand contenders for 2016 Olympic selection in the Womens Singlehanded Laser Radial class.

Although there is another possible selection event after the 2016 World Championships currently underway in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, the World Championship is expected to carry the greatest weighting.

New Zealand qualified for the 2016 Olympics in the Laser Radial in September 2014, in Santander, when 2012 Olympic representative, Sara Winther, qualified New Zealand as 11th country of the 20 places allocated at the 2014 World Championships.

Despite having met the Olympic qualifying standard two years ago, all New Zealanders competing at the regatta are self-funding and are competing against other nationally funded teams as they build up just 100 days out from the 2016 Olympics. Winther had to sell her New Zealand boat to compete at the Worlds and later Sailing World Cup at Hyeres, France.

Light winds again prevailed for the start of racing on Day 2 with a lot of morning cover over the Mexican resort, which normally has 15-20kt seabreezes.

Two races were attempted in the Blue fleet. Winther finished 11th - enough to lift her three places up the points table to 19th overall . The second race was started, but abandoned after a major windshift. The second New Zealand competitor, Susannah Pyatt placed fifth in her race moving her up into 21st overall, just one point behind Winther. Winther is one point behind the top Australian competitor Ashley Stoddart. Pyatt is one of four competitors on 37pts in the 71 strong fleet. The third New Zealand sailor, Olivia Christie is in 58th place after three races.

Sara Winter told Sail-World that the start of race 1 in the Blue fleet was delayed for an hour due to shifting winds.

'I started at boat end and tacked pretty soon on, making a big gain as we knocked a lot. Did a few tacks up the beat to be safe, and was third at the top mark for the first time.

'I went around the left gate (which was wrong but i was on that side of downwind) should have tacked back early to protect the right, but didn’t, so five boats passed me pretty quickly.

'From there I struggled to get enough right to make up any of the loss. So very disappointing race to lose 9 places and finish 11th. I paid a big price for just playing it a bit too conservative and not attacking out of the gate at the bottom mark.'

Winther was again in the top group in Race 2 after again winning the committee boat end at the start of Race 2.

'A I won the boat end, tacked over…felt like we were running out of pressure a bit, so did a safety tack back towards the middle, got some nice pressure and sailed well and was fourth at the top mark.'

'Went down the run, and even though I could see pressure on left side of course, I didn’t want to make the mistake like last race so went around the right (safe) hand gate.

'But the pressure did come from the left with massive shift. Then the wind died and race got abandoned. But i did a good job of getting back to the left even after the wrong gate, if the race finished at top mark I would have been 10 or 12th.

'To underline the fickle conditions, Ashley Stoddart (AUS) went from third to last up that beat…so went pretty inside out.!'

Three races will be sailed tomorrow.

For full results click here