NZL Sailing Team- More Ups than Downs in World Cup at Hyeres

by Richard Gladwell on 26 Apr 2011 Racing continued overnight at Hyeres, France in the fourth round of the ISAF World Cup, in the 2011 Semaine Olympique Francais.

Tom Ashley has relinquished the lead in the Mens RS:X class scoring two third places - but in the split qualifying fleet format these can count heavily in the pointscore - particularly when the competitors ahead of you are winning races - which Ashley has not done yet. All three competitors ahead (and one behind) of the 2008 Olympic Gold medalist and World Champion, have won at least two races, with series leader Piotr Myszka (POL) having won three of the five races sailed in the series.

Ashley is tied for third on points - but the lack of a win counts against him in the tiebreaking process, so is listed as fourth overall. The top five have managed a jump on the rest of the field.

JP Tobin did not have a good day, sliding four places on the leaderboard to lie 10th overall in the fleet.

Positions remained largely unchanged in the Womens RS:X fleet with Natalia Kosinka staying in 27th place overall, Justina Sellers picked up to lie in 37th. She scored a seventh place in Race 5, which is the bst performance by a New Zealand female sailor in this event, so far in the regatta. Stephanie Williams headed south to lie 43rd overall, Jazmine Lynch lies in 58th and Georgia Schofield in 71st in the 75 competitor fleet.

In the Laser Radial, Sara Winther did the big jump from 15th overall after the first day, to lead the pointscore at the end of the second. Her rise was helped greatly by being able to discard the 16th place from Race 2 in the series, and she finished the second day with a 1,2,3 scorecard, and is counting top three places in her score and had a three point buffer over Sarah Steyart (FRA). Miranda Powrie has lifted to 20th overall, with Rachel Basevi lying 35th in the 98 strong fleet.

Dan Slater in the Finn class has been another big mover in the Finn fleet, scoring two wins to move from 13th overall to fourth on the poinstscore. His wins helped shift overnight leader, triple Olympic Gold medalist, Ben Ainslie (GBR) from his pointscore lead - one point now separates the top three overall, with Slater seven points back and with a five point buffer over the fifth placed boat. The top five have opened out a big gap on the rest of the fleet, and consistency is now the key to success in this regatta.

Three New Zealand sailors won races in the Mens Laser.

Rising up the leaderboard is Andy Maloney who sailed with sufficient consistency to climb to third overall in the Mens Laser class. He now has two wins in the event - one less than series leader Tom Slingsby (AUS). A win in the fourth race lifted Andrew Murdoch to seventh overall. However his wings were clipped by a prestart disqualification under the Black Flag Rule in Race 3. Josh Junior also scored a win in Race 5, and lies in eighth place overall. Michael Bullot, too picked up a vital win, lifting him from mid-forties to lie in 21st overall after two days of racing. Sam Meech was the only competitor to head south on the points table dropping from 29th to 67th on the overnight points after Day 2.

Beyond the top five in the Mens Laser, the points are very tight all the way down the fleet, and again consistency will be the key to success in this regatta.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders had a lack lustre day in the Mens 470, scoring in the teens in the three races sailed, and have dropped back from sixth after the first day to lie in 14th overall. They were able to discard a 17th place in the final race of the day, and underlining the closeness of the competition, they are only four points out of eighth place overall - and their target will be to make the cut for the medal race in the weekend.

In the Womens Match Racing the New Zealand team scored three wins from three races and now lie in sixth place out of eight in their pool.

New Zealand is not fielding crews in the Womens 470, Mens 49er and Mens Star or any of the Paralympic events.

Racing continues in the Qualification round until Tuesday when the fleets are split into Gold and Silver fleets for most events. Medal racing takes place on Friday 29th April, local time

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