Hyeres Sailing World Cup : Four Medals, Two Gold and Two Silver, for Top Nation New Zealand!

Burling and Tuke © Franck Socha / ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres

by Jodie Bakewell-White

The NZLSailingTeam has ended ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres with a four medal haul including two golds and two silvers with a further two sailors finishing just outside the medals in fourth.
Overall victories came from New Zealand’s London Olympic medallists, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (49er), and Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (Women’s 470) who have both secured back to back gold medals at ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma in early April, and now Hyeres. Andy Maloney won silver in the Laser after a close medal race battle with Tom Burton of Australia, while Alexandra Maloney were the other kiwi crew to win silver in Hyeres, in the 49erFX class. 

In all, eight New Zealand crews finished in the top ten in Hyeres. For the NZL Sailing Team this marks an improved overall team performance over ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma Regatta staged in early April 2014 where the medal haul was two gold (49er and Women’s 470) and a total of five top ten finishes.  The results make New Zealand one of the top performing nations at this regatta with an identical medal haul to Australia and Poland.

Women’s 470

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie are delighted to win gold which they earned comfortably with an eight point margin over Great Britain’s Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre. In today’s medal race the kiwis, who are current world and Olympic champions, and ISAF Female Sailor of the Year, crossed in 4^th placed to secure the win. Powrie talks about today’s race; "It was a little bit stressful. We made it hard for ourselves. We thought we may have been over at the start so we came back and re-started.” "We managed to make our way back through the fleet and we still managed to come away with an overall win but still stressful." On the victory Powrie added, "I'm very relieved. It's really nice to win again. We put together a relatively good series which was nice.” “We’re happy to be heading home next.”

49er

Dominant throughout the week Peter Burling and Blair Tuke rounded out the regatta with three solid races today, including a gun in the opener, and stand atop the podium once again. Burling says; "I'm pretty stoked to take the win. We had a pretty big lead but it was mathematically possible to lose it so we made sure we did the job in the first race and had a bit of fun in the last two.” "It was really great to get out in the lead in the first race and just be able to sail away.” "We're definitely really happy with how we backed up Palma with another win." The silver medal went to Ryan Seaton and Mathew McGovern of Ireland while Olympic gold medallists Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen came through on the final day to push kiwis Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski out of the medals and into 4^th. The younger kiwi pair sailed strongly this week and will be disappointed to miss out on a podium finish by the absolute narrowest of margins.

Laser

Another narrow margin was that between kiwi Andy Maloney and Aussie Tom Burton in the Laser class who went into the medal race separated by only three points.  Placing 7^th in today’s double-points race Maloney had to settle for silver when Burton came home two places in front of him for the gold. Maloney commented after racing; "It was really tough, like it always was going to be in the Medal Race. I was really close with TB [Tom Burton] going into it. The game plan was to lead at the top mark and then evaluate from there. I knew what I needed to do.” "I didn't have the best of start. The French guy was on top of me so that didn't help. I was looking pretty good two thirds up the beat and didn't have the best rounding at the top of the course but I was back in amongst it in the downwind.” "At the bottom gate I had another small hiccup with a yellow flag for rocking. I was then just behind Tom at the bottom gate and in with the fight.” "I got behind him on the final run and it was looking good right near the finish line. I was just sticking with Tom and then the French guy just slipped in right between us.” "It's tough to take but there are a lot of good points we can take out of this week." Team-mate Sam Meech placed 9^th in the medal race today and ends the regatta in 9^th overall.

49erFX

Sailing three stadium style medal races today Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech managed to narrow the points gap on Martine Soffiati Grael and Kahena Kunze, but the Brazilians had done enough earlier in the week to take the gold, and the kiwi pair come away with the silver medal. Maloney and Meech will be pleased with this performance after they failed to make the medal race at ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma where they finished in 11^th.

Finn

Josh Junior also improved on his result from Palma, where he finished 16^th, ending this regatta on a high note for 4^th place overall. In today’s medal race Junior came home in 2^nd which saw him leap-frog into 4^th.

Women’s RS:X

Natalia Kosinska raced in the Women’s RS:X medal race today placing 5^th and ending the six day regatta in 7^th overall.  For her this is also an improvement from the recent Palma regatta where she finished outside the top ten in 12^th place. 

From here a number of the NZL Sailing Team return to New Zealand for a short break before their next major international, while some will stay on in Europe. Click here for the 2014 calendar of Olympic class events.

ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres; New Zealand’s Final Results 

Full results here

Women’s 470 (51 boats) 
1^stJo Aleh and Polly Powrie - NZL Sailing Team 

49er (79 boats) 
1^stPeter Burling and Blair Tuke – NZL Sailing Team 
4^thMarcus Hansen and Josh Porebski – NZL Sailing Team 
 58^th Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock 

49erFX (42 boats) 
2^ndAlexandra Maloney and Molly Meech – NZL Sailing Team 

Finn (59 boats) 
4^th  Josh Junior – NZL Sailing Team 
21^stAndrew Murdoch – NZL Sailing Team 

Laser (123 boats) 
2^ndAndy Maloney – NZL Sailing Team 
9^thSam Meech – NZL Sailing Team 
15^thThomas Saunders – NZL Sailing Team 
97^th Andrew McKenzie 

Women’s RS:X (58 windsurfers) 
7^thNatalia Kosinska – NZL Sailing Team 

Men’s 470 (81 boats) 
29^thPaul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox – NZL Sailing Team 

Men’s RS:X (91 windsurfers) 
18^th Jon-Paul Tobin 

Nacra 17 (77 boats) 
13^thGemma Jones and Jason Saunders – NZL Sailing Team 
54^th Rachel Basevi and Tomer Simhony 
66^th Vicky Francis and Geoff Woolley 

Laser Radial (79 boats) 
18^th Sara Winther 
64^th Ali Nightingale – NZL Yachting Trust Youth Team 

Coaches and support: Nathan Handley, Mark Howard, Ian Neely, Dave Robertson, John Cutler, Hamish Willcox, Steve Erickson, Peter Evans and Will Howden 

About the NZL Sailing Team 
The NZL Sailing Team includes New Zealand’s top Olympic campaigners who have made the top 20% in their most recent (respective) class World Championships or pinnacle event and have shown consistency of performance over the year including other significant Championships. Yachting New Zealand’s High Performance Programme is focussed on winning medals at the Olympics in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. NZL Sailing Team sailors all started out at grass roots yacht clubs around the country and with commitment, dedication and drive have risen to be world class athletes; they work hard in the gym, train long hours on the water and are supported by great coaches.

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