NZL Sailing Team: Josh Junior misses Bronze on tie breaker - Day 8

by Yachting New Zealand/Sail-World.com/NZ 10 Aug 2018 04:50 BST 9 August 2018

Three Medal races were sailed overnight NZT at the Hempel Sailing World Championships for the combined Olympic classes. It was the first day of Medal races in the Regatta which finishes on Saturday night (NZT).

New Zealand sailors only competed in one of the three events overnight, not making the final ten places in the 470 mens and womens two handed classes.

Although the short-term focus is on winning medals, the long-term objective is to achieve Olympic Qualification for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Of the three classes which have concluded, New Zealand has made the first cut for Tokyo 2020 in two classes - the Finn and Mens 470.

While the day was generally reckoned to be disappointing, it will serve as a reminder that there is still a lot of work to be done before the Olympic Regatta at Enoshima on the ocean courses of Japan's Sagami Bay.

America's Cup Champion and 2016 Olympic representative in the Finn class, Josh Junior crossed the finish line and gave the thumbs-up but it didn't really mask his disappointment after missing out on a medal on countback at the sailing world championships in Aarhus.

The 28-year-old finished level on points with Pieter-Jan Postma but the Dutchman secured bronze by virtue of having finished ahead of Junior in the medal race.

It was a disappointing outcome for Junior, who led overall heading into yesterday's final race which was struck by a massive squall that caused chaos in the fleet. Junior was one of a handful to capsize and saw his lead evaporate in a barrage of wind and rain.

He still had a good chance of winning gold in today's top 10, double points medal race, but so did eight others. In fact all ten competitors were mathematically capable of winning a medal in the Finn class.

Hungary's Zsombor Berecz won the race to snatch gold from Sweden's Max Salminen, with Junior crossing in fourth.

"It was always going to be a close one with six of us pretty much tied on points," he said. "When it’s like that, it takes a bit of luck. I sailed a good race to finish fourth but not enough to get a medal so I’m a bit gutted after the week."

Junior and fellow Kiwi Andy Maloney, who finished 10th in the medal race and 10th overall, have made significant progress since getting back in the Finn after helping Emirates Team New Zealand win the America's Cup.

"There have been some huge improvements since we got back in the boats," Junior said. "Andy and I are working really closely together and we are making some big gains, especially in this light, shifty stuff that we didn’t used to sail that well in. We can take that forward and keep improving."

Sam Meech had visions of contesting for a medal in tomorrow's Laser medal race and was fourth overall but was later disaqualified from today's only race (he was initially 22nd) after an incident with Great Britain's Elliot Hanson on the final downwind leg.

Meech was deemed to have not given Hanson enough room after establishing an overlap as the pair were engaged in a real dogfight. He's now slipped back to fifth overall and would need all the stars to align to snatch bronze given he is 15 points off third.

"I was trying to move forward in the fleet and he was really trying to hold me back pretty much the whole race," said Meech, who won his first three races in qualifying. "Not only was I back in the pack trying to catch up but I also had someone trying to stop me. It was a really difficult race.

"It’s been a regatta of two halves for me. The first half I felt like I was getting it all right and the second half I feel like I haven’t got anything right."

It hasn't gone to plan for Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, either, with the Olympic silver medallists struggling all week. But the pair have qualified ninth for the 49erFX medal race and done enough to also qualify the boat for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn lost some ground in the 49er and are now fifth after starting the day in second. Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie are only 10 points behind in sixth and added their second race win of the regatta today.

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders also won the last race of the day in the Nacra 17 and are now 14th with one more day before the medal race. The pair had a horror start to the regatta when a pin broke, causing one of their foils to pop out and putting them out of the first two races.

Strong wind gusts are forecast for tomorrow, which could disrupt racing, but disruptions have been par for the course this week in Aarhus.

Results and standings after the eighth day of the sailing world championships in Aarhus, Denmark, overnight (NZ time):

Laser (165 boats)

1st: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 8 3 7 2 1 2 12 4 2 (14) - 41 points 2nd: Matthew Wearn (AUS) 7 4 1 4 3 1 3 9 (14) 13 - 45 pts 3rd: Elliot Hanson (GBR) 7 9 11 1 2 2 6 13 9 (24) - 60 pts

5th: Sam Meech (NZL) 1 1 1 2 13 4 34 7 13 (56 DSQ) - 75 pts 14th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 6 11 21 10 21 2 (32) 2 18 31 - 121 pts 28th: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 6 4 31 17 5 12 37 (42) 21 - 153 pts 35th: George Gautrey (NZL) 18 14 8 17 21 8 26 32 (34) 15 - 159 pts 106th: Matthew Kempkers (NZL) 40 12 45 45 22 33 28 35 35 (46) - 296 pts

Laser Radial (119 boats)

1st: Emma Plasschaert (BEL) 5 7 1 (15) 9 3 11 7 11 2 - 56 pts 2nd: Paige Railey (USA) 2 1 16 5 7 7 4 (37) 20 3 - 65 pts 3rd: Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 3 2 11 (28) 16 4 14 11 1 - 67 pts

40th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 31 18 41 10 12 29 42 25 (54) 8 - 216 pts 56th: Olivia Christie (NZL) 28 48 51 3 12 8 43 (57) 35 53 - 281 pts 106th: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) (58) 57 54 20 42 50 47 52 15 40 - 377 pts

Finn (90 boats)

1st: Zsombor Berecz (HUN) 13 8 6 (15) 10 5 3 9 7 7 2 - 70 pts 2nd: Max Salminen (SWE) 3 4 16 10 4 1 (21) 8 13 1 14 - 74 pts 3rd: Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) 14 1 3 3 (19) 6 18 12 4 11 4 - 76 pts

4th: Josh Junior (NZL) (25) 3 8 4 8 3 12 7 8 15 8 - 76 pts 10th: Andy Maloney (NZL) 6 13 5 5 11 13 (24) 1 22 6 20 - 102 pts

49er (86 boats)

1st: Tim Fischer / Fabian Graf (GER) 10 11 1 5 4 3 6 5 (19) 5 - 50 pts 2nd: Sime Fantela / Mihovil Fantela (CRO) 6 8 3 1 (25) 15 11 1 4 2 - 51 pts 3rd: Erik Heil / Thomas Ploessel (GER) 5 16 4 11 1 8 3 (27) 9 4 - 61 pts

5th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 8 2 1 2 9 9 (20) 3 17 16 - 67 pts 6th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 7 18 14 5 7 1 15 8 1 (22) - 77 pts 12th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 4 3 (25) 3 4 19 18 9 6 20 - 86 pts

49erFX (60 boats)

1st: Tanja Frank / Lorena Abicht (AUT) 7 2 (25) 9 6 4 12 6 1 7 1 16 - 71 pts 2nd: Sophie Weguelin / Sophie Ainsworth (GBR) 13 7 9 8 (19) 8 15 3 2 1 4 12 - 82 3rd: Annemiek Bekkering / Annette Duetz (NED) 3 (26) 8 4 3 5 1 20 11 8 3 19 - 85 pts

9th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 5 13 6 6 11 4 (30) 19 4 18 18 7 - 111 pts

Men's 470 (64 boats)

1st: Kevin Peponnet / Jeremie Mion (FRA) 11 11 3 1 9 2 3 (24) 3 7 6 - 56 pts 2nd: Tetsuya Isozaki / Akira Takayanagi (JPN) 5 6 2 7 1 (25) 16 10 1 2 10 - 60 pts 3rd: Jordi Xammar Hernandez / Nicolas Rodriguez Garcia-Paz (ESP) 2 5 4 (18) 8 3 6 11 16 3 4 - 62

12th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) (25) 5 7 3 14 11 23 4 STP 15 12 - 94 pts

Women's 470 (47 boats)

1st: Ai Kondo Yoshida / Miho Yoshioka (JPN) (12) 1 3 6 2 5 6 - 23 pts 2nd: Camille Lecointre / Aloise Retornaz (FRA) 2 6 4 7 8 (36) 1 - 28 pts 3rd: Hannah Mills / Eilidh McIntyre (BGR) 9 14 1 1 5 3 (18) - 33 pts

35th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds Smith (NZL) (40) 39 34 26 34 19 24 - 175 pts

Nacra 17 (68 boats)

1st: Nathan Ooutteridge / Haylee Ooutteridge (AUS) 5 5 (13) 5 8 3 7 1 3 5 - 42 pts 2nd: Lin Ea Cenholt / Christian Peter Lubeck (DEN) 7 5 6 7 1 2 10 5 (21) 3 - 46 pts 3rd: Santiago Lange / Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG) 3 2 2 2 3 6 4 11 (35 UFD) 13 - 46 pts

14th: Gemma Jones Jason Saunders (NZL) (35 DNF) 35 DNF 11 3 7 15 3 7 14 1 - 96 pts 15th: Olivia Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 4 7 (26) 6 8 21 18 23 14 - 104 pts

Men's RS:X (76 boards)

1st: Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED) 2 1 (14) 1 5 8 5 5 7 - 34 pts 2nd: Pawel Tarnowski (POL) 5 2 3 3 (26) 1 15 3 12 - 44 pts 3rd: Kieran Holmes Martin (GBR) 8 (12) 6 6 1 1 12 7 4 - 45 pts

58th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) 23 26 31 21 30 (34) 19 15 6 - 174 pts

Women's RS:X (62 boards)

1st: Lilian de Geus (NED) 4 3 5 2 6 3 (31) 1 6 - 30 pts 2nd: Yunxiu Lu (CHN) (17) 1 4 1 1 7 (24) 3 1 - 35 pts 3rd: Zofia Noceti- Klepacka (POL) 1 5.2 RDG 3 4 10 8 7 (14) 7 - 45.2 pts

55th: Veerle ten Have (NZL) 9 24 (29) 29 29 29 25 25 24 - 194 pts

Men's formula kite (61 boards)

1st: Nicolas Parlier (FRA) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (11) 1 2 (23 DCT) 1 3 8 1 6 - 29 pts 2nd: Guy Bridge (GBR) (2) (12) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 DNC 4 3 - 29 pts 3rd: Oliver Bridge (GBR) 1 (5) 2 2 1 2 1 1 (6) 1 1 1 1 7 2 8 - 31 pts

18th: Sam Bullock (NZL) 6 5 5 7 6 6 (23 DNC) 6 (11) 10 3 5 7 8 7 9 - 90 pts

Full results aarhus2018.sailing.org/results