ISAF World Cup- NZ crews win Gold and Bronze medals at Olympic venue

by Sail-World on 10 Jun 2012
Jo Aleh and Olivia (Polly) Powrie won the Gold medal in the Womens Two-handed (470) event at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta sailed at the 2012 Olympic regatta venue. The New Zealand crew in the Mens Two-Hander (470), Paul Snow-Hansen with crew, Jason Saunders, won the Bronze medal, after earlier leading the regatta.

After a week of tumultuous weather at the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta in Weymouth, the sun finally came out and the wind moderated to a perfect 15 knots for the Medal race in the Mens Singlehander (Laser) . The breeze started to build for the following 470 races, and then a fresh 20-22 knots for the RS:X windsurfer in the early afternoon.

A third place finish in the 470 women’s final medal race was enough for the NZL Sailing Team’s Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie to keep their advantage over the chasing teams. Aleh and Powrie went into the final day with a nine point lead.

Aleh and Powrie won this event in 2011, and since then have only topped the podium at one major event; the 470 Spring Cup earlier in 2012. They finished the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships with third, and the 2012 470 class world championships in fourth, and are now in their final stages of preperation for the 2012 Olympic Games, in 48days time.

Paul Snow Hansen and Jason Saunders finished their medal race with a solid fourth which was enough to hold onto their third place overall as they had going into the race. They entered this regatta after placing second at the previous ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta, Delta Lloyd and will be chasing a third podium place at the next and final ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta in Kiel, Germany later this month. They too will be representing New Zealand at the 2012 Olympic Games, to be sailed in the same waters as this regatta.

In the Mens Singlehander (Laser) Medal race, which like all events on the final day is restricted to the top ten boats overall. New Zealand's Andy Maloney sailed a great race, pushing regatta winner Tom Slingsby around the course for a second place finish in that race. Maloney moved up to seventh overall on the basis of his performance in the Medal race which carries double points. A ninth place finish in the Medal round meant NZ's 2012 Olympic Laser representative, Andrew Murdoch, slid back to finish the regatta in ninth overall.

The Women’s Match Racing crew of Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen an Susannah Pyatt were knocked out of the competition in the quarter final by Claire Leroy of France, finishing the regatta in seventh overall, a very creditable result for this crew.

JP Tobin finished in 10th and last place in the double scoring Medal race in the Mens Windsurfer (RS:X) and placed 9th overall in the event. Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED), coached by Aaron McIntosh (NZL) turned around an eight point deficit going into the Medal race to create a tie, and then winning the Gold medal after tie breaking process was applied - which goes in favour of the winner of the Medal race.

Although Medal racing was held in all the other events on the final day, except for the Paralympic classes - which were wound up yesterday. New Zealand sailors didn't make the cut for the top ten

In total, the NZL Sailing Team finished as fourth best nation, with six crew finishing inside the top ten.

Sail for Gold 2012 Final Standings

470 (Women’s Two-hander)
1st Jo Aleh and Olivia (Polly) Powrie (5,15, 3, 8,8,1, 1, 1, 6)

470 (Men’s Two-hander))
3rd Paul Snow Hansen and Jason Saunders (9, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 10, 8)

Laser (Mens Singlehander)
7th Andy Maloney (15, 8, 17, 4, 4, 4, 1, 11, 4)
9th Andrew Murdoch (15, 2, 10, 5, 20, 8, 8, 5, 18)
20th Sam Meech (11, 17, 20, 8, 7, 12, 17, 30)

RS:X (Men's Windsurfer)
9th JP Tobin (19, 6,14, 9, 9, 3, 4, 4, 20)

Women’s Match Racing
7th Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt

2.4mR (Paralympic Singlehander)
11th Paul Francis (15, 5, 17,10, 12, 13)
12th Brett Willcock (8, 6, 18, 17, 10 15)

49er (Mens Skiff)
11th Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (3, 10, 14, 10, 7, 8, 2, 7, 4, 9)
13th Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (7, 6, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 10, 6, 13)

Finn (Mens Heavyweight Singlehander)
18th Josh Junior (10,19, 11, 23, 23, 16, 29)
29th Matt Coutts (11,34, 32, 31, 18, 34, 28)
38th Rob Coutts (19, 40, 39, 38, 39, 40, 35)

Laser Radial (Womens Singlehander)
41st Sara Winther (19, 26, BFD, 19, 10, 12)

RS:X (Women’s Windsurfer)
17th Natalia Kosinska (9, 10, 14, 17, 25, 44, 23)
23rd Steffanie Williams (25, 31, 21, 16, 15, 25, 20)

Skud 18 (Paralympic Two-hander)
6th Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel (13, 7, 6, 10, 4, 4)

Star (Mens Keelboat)
11th Hamish Pepper and Jim Turner (8, 7,12, 11, 11, 8)