Sail-World.com NZ Olympic Regatta News from Day 11 to the return Home

by . on 26 Aug 2016 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand Olympic edition e-magazine for August 26, 2016, coming to you from Auckland

The 2016 Sailing Olympics have been judged - amongst the media who have attended a few (in one case 12 Olympics) as being the best yet.

In our review of the Rio de Janeiro regatta, we explain why Rio succeeded against a torrent of negative publicity ahead of the regatta.

Whether that bad press had any impact, we will probably never know, but despite some long odds, Rio generally delivered and turned on a spectacular event.

From what I've seen of the sailing on TV following my return on Sunday morning, there was some great coverage. You are lucky to have seen more than just the highlights.

From a New Zealand perspective, we equalled the best Olympic sailing performance - Barcelona in 1992.

The reality is that New Zealand won four medals from seven events which is a better than 50% return. Whether we should have been in all ten events is now a moot point - but even four medals from 10 events is a very good conversion rate.

In my view, New Zealand was unlucky to come away with one Gold, two Silver, and Bronze. It should have been three Gold and a Bronze.

The Women's 470 crew staged a great comeback and had a very focussed approach, of which we should not be surprised. Talking to Jo and Polly with three races left in the series plus a Medal Race, and a ten point gap to close, you have to wonder how deep they can dig to extricate themselves from a very difficult situation.

They were very unfairly caught by both the U-flag disqualification and the disqualification in the first race - which cost them a 6th place. They should have had a fairly comfortable Gold Medal win.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke performed to expectation in the Men's 49er. It is a hell an expectation to win a Gold Medal without needing points from the Medal race, but their dominance of the class has been such since 2012 that their win was regarded by most pundits as a fait accompli. By opening their account with two wins on the first day, they avoided the opening day stumbles experienced by other pre-series favourites.

Josh Junior will have mixed feelings from the Finn class. He had a rough start to the regatta with three placings in the bottom third of the fleet and a DSQ from four races. But he too effected a recovery in the last half of the regatta and although he didn't have a great Medal Race, still finished seventh overall. His aim towards the end of the series, a rather ambitious one, was to come out of the regatta in 4th place. In my view, Josh was always a selection aimed at Tokyo 2020. He has the build for the Finn, looks good in the boat, and will have learned a lot from the Rio experience.

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders were a bit of a surprise packet in the Nacra 17 and came within an ace of medaling. Their win in the Medal Race was very convincing and was a desperate last throw of the dice in the hope that others would stumble and open the way to the Medal Podium. Their problem was a string of double digit placings, including three in the last four races of the Qualifying Round which made life harder than it should have been. But to be fair, that was an issue with all the top four crews in the regatta. Unspectacular consistency would have been well rewarded in the Nacra 17 class at the Rio Olympics.

The Men's 470 crew looked to be on target for a top five finish at least. They started well but took a battering on Day 2 when the fleet took on the Atlantic Ocean in the worst conditions ever experienced at an Olympic regatta. Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox did stage a bit of a comeback over the next two days but didn't really have the latitude to be inconsistent in the final stages of the regatta. Interestingly there was a lot on the table in the Medal Race, with the Gold, Silver and Bronze medallists finishing 8th, 9th, and 10th respectively. Somehow you feel this crew has a lot more in them than we have seen to date - aside from their second place in the 2016 Worlds.

The 49erFX was another that came within an ace of winning a Gold medal. It was always going to be a big ask taking on a Brazilian crew, skippered by a Grael, in their home waters. But Alex Maloney and Molly Meech turned in the race of their lives, leading for almost five of the six leg course - just dropping the lead when the second and third boats elected to split tacks and the Kiwis decided to take the beach side of the course rather then the Sugarloaf - which had been the graveyard for so many crews.

Certainly, they provided an outstanding finish to the regatta and with just a little puff going their way on the final leg may have just been able to soak down, cut the corner, and spoil the Brazilian party.

In the Laser class, Same Meech did well to win New Zealand's first Medal of the Sailing Olympics. Like with the Nacra 17, the Men's Laser was an event where consistency would pay a big dividend, and the Medal Race resulted in an upset win for Australian Tom Burton. Meech did extremely well to hold out home town hero, Robert Scheidt who has won five medals, including two Gold and a Silver in the Laser class from five Olympics. His other two medals were won in the Star keelboat.

With the 2016 Olympics concluded, thoughts turn to the future. New Zealand has a mix of talent, which also is relatively young, and should be good for another two Olympics.

A key will be whether they make a commitment to the Commitment. Certainly, it is a big ask, and the key decisions won't be made until after February 2017 when World Sailing has said it will confirm the classes and composition of the 2020 Olympic regatta.

For new sailors who are serious about getting in the viewfinder for Tokyo, the next target will be the Final of the Sailing World Cup to be held in Melbourne in December.

While the regular round of the Sailing World Cup Melbourne has been bypassed by the Kiwis, in the circumstances a starting point has to be made somewhere, and with the lure of big prizemoney for those who did not compete in the 2016 Olympics, the opportunity should be hard to pass up.

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Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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