Alex Maloney and Molly Meech (NZL) 49er FX - Day 8 - Hempel Sailing World Championships, Aarhus, Denmark - August 2018 - photo © Sailing Energy / World Sailing
Dear Recipient Name
Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for August 15, 2018
The most significant Olympic classes regatta outside of the Olympics proper ended on a wet windless note on Sunday.
Instead of the calm and rain, the Hempel Sailing World Championships at Aarhus, Denmark will be remembered for the huge step forward for the sport with the improved television coverage which was the best coverage of any inshore regatta to date. America's Cup included. Part of that was the use of drones for the first time in a regatta of this significance, giving some great close ups of the competitors in action - and without the irritating premature cut-aways - that have been a feature of most regatta coverage in the past.
The commentary standard went up several notches aided by a great positioning and analysis and reporting system from SAP/Sail Track, coupled with an expert commentator who could quickly read the SAP/Sail Track system - interpret what was happening, then clearly explain it to the audience within seconds - and get it right first time. That is an incredible talent and skill, helped no doubt by the SAP/Sail Track system - and what a difference it made.
The question now is whether this style and standard of coverage will be carried onto the Olympics - or whether Sailing will be told how the coverage will be done by the IOC's host broadcaster.
If so, then the Sport will wear the consequences of that coverage quality for the next four years, triggering the nonsensical comments that the way to "fix" sailing and make it more "media friendly" is by bringing in different classes, monkeying around with events and running with the latest brain-explosions from within World Sailing.
Aarhus killed off all that nonsense - proving that the current classes and events are just fine - given a better television treatment. Had we got the promised finale of Nacra 17 Medal race, and the Finn maelstrom from Day 7 as part of the live coverage, there would have been few complaints about any aspect of Aarhus.
Overlooked by most commentators was that the Women's Kiteboarding event attracted only 11 competitors in what was an Open entry event. Just five competed in the 2017 World Championships in Oman.
Simply put, it is not a credible position to anoint with Olympic status, any class that has such poor sailor support.
At the end of this year, World Sailing will have to backtrack on its previous decisions made regarding the introduction of Kiteboarding. Aarhus showed that Kiteboarding is no more spectacular - nor does it make better TV images - than any of the existing events.
The real anguish after the regatta was almost universal across the so-called developed sailing nations – due to medal success being less than expectations.
The Dutch were happy - having topped the regatta medal-list with three gold medals, two silvers and one bronze. France was second with four, and in a tie for third between Australia, Germany, Japan and Great Britain on two each - with the tiebreaker going in favour of 2020 Host nation Japan - the only one of the two-medal group with a Gold Medal.
The hard-luck prize goes to New Zealand for being the only medal-less country to have lost a bronze medal on a tie-break (Josh Junior in the Finn class).
The Jacinda prize goes to Charline Picon (FRA) for being the best-placed medal winner to have given birth between the 2016 Olympics (where she won the Women's RS:X), and Aarhus two years later.
The First Family prize goes to the Bridge family for mother Steph (GBR) placing 4th in the Women's Kiteboard, and siblings Guy placing 3rd along with his brother Oliver finishing 7th, in the Mens Kiteboard.
Coach of the Regatta is Aaron McIntosh (NZL) for being the coach of two Dutch sailors - the Gold Medal winner and Silver Medal winner in the Men's RS:X. (Japan with a Gold and Silver in the Mens and Women's 470 may have also achieved the same, if they used the same coach.)
It will no doubt come as great relief to the British team to know that they are clear frontrunners in the proposed 2024 Olympic event of the Mixed Kiteboard - Relay or whatever.
The Brits - Steph Bridge (4th) and son Guy (2nd) would have won the Gold Medal. In fact, Mrs Bridge could have also won the Gold medal with her other son Oliver who placed 7th in the Mens Kiteboard. Russia was second with 2/9 placings, and Italy won the Bronze with 3/17 placings. Will 2024 be the first time an Olympic selection choice has been made around the family dinner table? Whatever your opinion of the Kiteboard in the 2024 Olympics, you have to salute the achievements of this family.
The disparity between the two fleets in a supposed Kiteboard Mixed Relay event is underlined by that projected Bronze result. In fact, France had five competitors in the top 10 on the male side of the fleet, but none among the 11 women competitors.
The Brits were castigated in their media for "only" winning two bronze medals.
US Sailing played up their Gold Medal win in the non-Olympic Womens Kiteboard. Read SailingIllustrated.com's Tom Ehman analysis on sailingillustrated.com
A former Executive Director of the then US Yacht Racing Union, Ehman doesn't hold back.
Yachting New Zealand was more sanguine in its final media report addressing the no-medals from Aarhus issue in the first line.
YNZ correctly identified that the primary objective at this regatta was to qualify for as many 2020 Olympic places as possible - with Aarhus being the first 2020 Olympic Qualification opportunity. Six 2020 places was apparently the NZ target, and was achieved.
Missing from the YNZ commentary is the fact that New Zealand Qualified in all ten events at this regatta in 2014 at Santander, Spain. New Zealand only nominated in seven events for the 2016 Olympics - and was the country who turned down the most places. That was a set-back for the three classes - RS:X Men, RS:X Women's and Laser Radial.
Also missing from the YNZ commentary is the fact that overall Olympic entry numbers have dropped from 380 in 2016 to 350 for 2020 in Tokyo. Coupled with that reduction the numbers of qualifying places have fallen from being 50% of the places in 2014 for the 2016 Olympics to 40% in 2018 for the 2020 Olympics. In hard numbers, that adjustment means that the available places have dropped from 190 in 2014 at Santander, to 140 in 2018 in Aarhus.
It must also be remembered that while NZ qualified in all ten classes in Santander, (helped by the bigger Olympic quota), New Zealand just slid inside the cut-off on several classes.
One of those was the 49er FX (Alex Maloney and Molly Meech), who just squeaked in on the 2016 Olympic Qualification in Santander, but went onto win the Silver Medal in Rio and came with an ace of winning the Gold, in what was the cliff-hanger race of the Rio Olympics.
One of the positives from Aarhus is that there are now several classes in which New Zealand has a genuine depth of internationally ranked talent. In most cases, those sailors are young and have good Olympic and other prospects ahead of them. Most competitors had a serious achievement - such as a race win in Aarhus. For those at their first regatta at this level, a race win is an excellent achievement and is a solid base for future success rather than just a flash in the pan. There is also a good talent stream of top youth sailors who have already, or are about to step onto the Olympic ladder.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke were the elephants in the 49er room at Aarhus. Few would have bet against these two for a medal, if not a Gold in the 49er. That is not to detract from the excellent results of the other New Zealanders in the 49er class, but Burling and Tuke are definitely the Gold standard of Olympic sailing. And those who score this regatta in terms of medal success must factor in Burling and Tuke's absence from Aarhus.
Also remember that the Olympics have smaller fleets, less depth (in that multiple competitors from one country are not permitted). So the Dutch Gold-Silver in the Mens RS:X can't be repeated. The smaller size of the Olympics generally suits the less process-orientated New Zealand style.
Further, Aarhus is quite different water from Sagami Bay, Japan. Aarhus is semi-landlocked with a climate driven by the Scandinavian and European land mass. Sagami Bay is open ocean, bordered by land on one side only.
Kiwi fans should take great comfort from the fact that Sagami Bay and the island of Enoshima was the venue of Helmer Pedersen's and Earle Wells' Gold medal win in the Flying Dutchman class in 1964.
After training solidly since the end of the Olympic Trials off Murrays Bay, they went to Japan with good speed, thanks to the international quality fleet that was present in the Flying Dutchman class in New Zealand at that time.
There are a lot of parallels from 1964, to what we now see in New Zealand's Olympic effort in the run-up to 2020 Olympics, at the same venue.
Being sat on your backside at this stage of an Olympic campaign, as has happened to the Kiwis, does no harm either. Expect the NZL Sailing Team to get back up quickly after this minor fall.
Hopefully, the painful memories of Aarhus will remain fresh, and the NZ Olympic Sailing team's determination strengthened for the fightback on Sagami Bay in 2020.
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Good sailing!
Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor
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