SEIKO 49er & 49erFX Worlds at Marseille, France - Overall
by Andy Rice 29 Sep 2013 21:58 BST
24-29 September 2013
Kiwis dominate with 2 gold, 1 silver
New Zealand dominated the Seiko 49er & 49erFX World Championships in Marseille with a dazzling display of confidence and maturity by three young teams all in their early 20s.
First up was the 10-boat, three-race short-course final for the FX
women, and Alex Maloney and Molly Meech hammered home their points
advantage with a straightforward victory. Behind them was a much
tighter battle for silver and bronze that wasn't settled until the
final few seconds of the final race. Brazil's Martine Grael and Kahena
Kunze clinched silver by less than a boatlength from France's Sarah
Steyaert and Julie Bossard.
Immediately afterwards the men raced their three 10-minute heats, and
when Peter Burling and Blair Tuke won the first race by a big margin,
it looked unlikely any other crew would threaten them for gold.
However, they had a poor second heat with a 9th place finish, while
their younger team mates Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski won the race,
moving to just 10 points behind the Olympic silver medallists. If they
could get four boats between them in the final heat the world title
would go to NZL-6 rather than NZL-2, but in the end Burling and Tuke
did enough to win the Worlds by 12 points.
Burling and Tuke have won silver at the past two 49er World
Championships, plus Olympic silver, and now the gold. "Great to take
the win," said Burling, who also won the Red Bull Youth America's Cup
a month earlier in San Francisco. "Good to give the NZ yachting
community a bit to cheer about after what happened with the Cup
earlier in the week. For us, we were feeling for them, we know them
well, but it was good to just get on with our own little thing and get
it on."
Alex Maloney and Molly Meech capped off a successful first season in
the new women's Olympic skiff with an impressive win in Marseille.
"Pretty awesome, especially with the guys winning too," said Meech,
who was also mindful of the tough time for her compatriots in San
Francisco. "I think Dean Barker did an amazing performance, and we're
all proud of what Emirates Team New Zealand achieved. But hopefully
today's win will put a smile on a few people's places. We've put a
whole lot of hard work into this year, and it's all paid off. But this
is all just one stepping stone to Rio 2016, and it will get harder
over the next few years."
While Kiwi gold was virtually assured going into the final
double-points race, the battle for silver and bronze was a tight
five-way battle between Germany, Great Britain, Italy, France and
Brazil. It was close all the way to the finish, with the Dutch winning
the race, but crucially for the Brazilians, a second place just enough
to secure silver ahead of the French who took bronze. Martine Grael
and Kahena Kunze were delighted to win silver, the same colour they
won at the Europeans in Denmark two months earlier. "It was great,"
said Grael. "Early this morning Kahena had all her belongings stolen
from the hotel. She was very, very mad! But I think it helped. We'll
go to the police to report it, but first we celebrate!"
Marseille is the training base for France's strong 49er and FX squads,
and the cheers were loud across the bay as the home team won bronze in
both fleets. Manu Dyen has taken most of the last year off since the
Olympics, becoming a father for the first time. But today he and crew
Stephane Christidis scored their first ever Worlds medal.
Even more impressive was a bronze for Sarah Steyaert and Julie Bossard
who only started sailing the 49er FX less than three months earlier.
"When we found out we had won the bronze medal, it went crazy. We're
really happy because we have only sailed together since July. We still
have a lot of room for improvement. This bodes well for the future."
Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen relinquished their world crown after
winning four of the last five 49er World Championships. They had a
shocking start in the first race today, but kept on chipping away and
finished 5th overall. Bearing in mind they haven't raced since winning
gold at last year's Olympics, the opposition know that the Australians
remain one of the hot favourites for Rio 2016.
Just ahead in 4th place were Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign who had led
for much of the week but suffered in the strong winds of Saturday. The
British team still had their sights set on a medal today, but missed
out to the French by 3 points. "Pretty hard to take," said Alain Sign.
"We've been working all season for this moment. We've been sailing
well all week, starting and speed is good, but it's such a fine line
in this fleet, and dropping the mainsheet out of a tack in the first
race was the difference that cost us a medal. That mistake probably
took us from being first or second around the top mark, to being last.
We thought we would get across the French boat that won bronze but we
had to do a penalty turn. He took a bit of an aim at us, but that's
going to happen in this racing where it's all about inches."
No nation is nailing the Olympic skiff like New Zealand right now.
Blair Tuke was savouring the moment. "Pete and I haven't won a world
champs since our junior days and to do it here in the 49er, and to
have our Kiwi training partners in 2nd place is a dream come true. And
to have the girls win the first FX World Championships - a good day
for Kiwi yachting."
49er.org/event/2013-world-championships
Olympic Class World Championship double for New Zealand at 49er and 49erFX Worlds (from Jodie Bakewell-White, Yachting New Zealand)
New Zealand's Olympic class sailors have pulled off an unprecedented result at the 2013 49er and 49erFX World Championships which wrapped up overnight in Marseille, France with two world titles and a silver medal.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have secured their first ever 49er World title, while Alex Maloney and Molly Meech have won the inaugural 49erFX world title. And Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski have won silver in the 49er.
"It's amazing, Pete and I are really, really happy" says Blair Tuke. "We've worked hard for this not just over the past year but since we started sailing the 49er together. To do it today it and have the other boys in second place and the girls win their world title makes it extra special."
And 21 year-old Alexandra Maloney is delighted to be crowned 49erFX champions; "Definitely really happy with how it went this week, it was really close right until the end so it's exciting."
This is 22 year old Peter Burling (Tauranga Yacht & Powerboat Club) and 24 year old Blair Tuke's (Kerikeri Cruising Club) first world title in the 49er and it comes in a full-strength world class fleet including reigning Olympic champions and multiple world title winners Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Australia, who finished 5th.
After light and tricky conditions over the opening half of the regatta Burling and Tuke, as well as Hansen and Porebski came to the fore on the penultimate day and hit the water for today's three theatre style medal races in 1st and 2nd place. But with double points on offer for each race anything could happen.
Tuke explains how the day panned out for them; "We went out and won that first race which was pretty cool and then we just made one small mistake which put us back in 9th which closed that buffer up we had back to about ten points and put the pressure back on for the last race, but we came back well to get second and claim the world title was really awesome."
2013 has been a stellar year for Burling and Tuke who have won the 49er European title, the Red Bull Youth America's Cup title and now the 49er World title.
"I think probably for Pete and I this one is the most special. The 49er is our priority and we've won this world champs. The Red Bull Youth America's Cup was also really special... working alongside, not just Pete and I but also a lot of other guys made that pretty special, but to do all three of them with the European Champs as well it's really cool."
New to the Olympic programme for 2016 the 49erFX women's skiff has attracted a number of accomplished international sailors and for New Zealanders Alexandra Maloney (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) and Molly Meech (Tauranga Yacht & Powerboat Club) to secure the 2013 world title is a massive achievement.
The young pair holds the ISAF World number one ranking after top three placings at all the major international regattas they've contested in 2013 including gold at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres and a bronze at the 49erFX European Championships in Denmark in June. Today's world title puts the icing on the cake for Maloney and Meech who both only recently stepped out of the youth classes.
Like the kiwi men Maloney and Meech went into today's medal races with the overall lead. Competing in a fleet of ten boats with double points on offer they raced away with a 2nd a 5th and a 4th to secure the world title by a huge 20 point margin from silver medallists Martine Soffiati Grael and Kahena Kunze of Brazil.
Meanwhile world championship silver is also a career topping result for 20 year old Marcus Hansen (Royal Akarana Yacht Club) and 21 year old Josh Porebski (Worser Bay Boating Club). The NZL Sailing Team pair has had a strong season with top ten results at the major internationals but this is far and away their best performance to date.
The team were supported in France by top New Zealand Olympic coaches Hamish Willcox (men's coach) and Nathan Handley (women's coach). Handley was also coach to Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie who took out the 2013 Women's 470 World Championship earlier this year.
"I'm really proud of all the team and these results are testament to the hard work they have put in." says Olympic Programme Manager Jez Fanstone.
"We wanted to hit the ground running after the London 2012 results to carry that momentum forward," he continues." With three Olympic class world titles in 2013 for the NZL Sailing Team it's a great start to the four year cycle."
Top 10 finishes for Australian crews at 49er and 49erFX World Championships (from Craign Heydon, Yachting Australia)
Racing has wrapped up at the 2013 49er and 49erFX World Championships with two Australian crews recording top 10 finishes.
London 2012 Olympic Games gold medallists Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen finished fifth while Olivia Price and Caitlin Elks were ninth.
The 2013 49er World Championships was the first time that Outteridge and Jensen had raced the boat since winning Olympic gold, with the pair spending the last year campaigning for the America’s Cup with Artemis Racing.
The defending World Champions fought their way back from 18th overall on the fourth day of racing to qualify for the medal races in seventh overall.
The final day saw the top 10 crews contest three short theatre style races with Outteridge and Jensen beginning with a sixth. The pair went on to finish fourth in the final two races to end the regatta in fifth position.
London 2012 silver medallist Olivia Price and crew Caitlin Elks began the day 10th in the 49erFX fleet, with the format being used at the event meaning that they had to race against the 10 boats below them on the leader board for the final spot in the medal races.
In incredibly light and shifty conditions the pair made it through the semi-final race and went on to contest the final three theatre style races.
As the day went on the breeze stabilized with Price and Elks third in the opening medal race, ninth in race two and seventh in race three, moving them up to ninth overall and qualifying the pair for the 2014 Australian Sailing Team.
“It was a long and tricky event with pretty much every condition we could ask for,” said Price. “It was a great event and experience and gives us a good idea of what to expect in future years.
“Finishing in the top 10 was one of the goals for the event, but we definitely have a lot to improve on and this was just the first step,” she said. “We’ll take some time off now to process what happened in the event and will debrief and assess the areas we need to work the hardest on.
“Re-qualifying for the Australian Sailing Team is something that builds up confidence as the team is something so many people strive to be a part of,” said Price. “The semi-final race was held very close to shore in a dying breeze that was left over from a massive storm front that had come through earlier that day. The medal races were held in a little more stable breeze but each side worked on different laps of the course, which forced everyone to be on their game for each of the 10 minute races.”
Fellow 49erFX sailors Haylee Outteridge and Nina Curtis finished their first World Championship together in 14th position with fellow Australians Tessa Parkinson and Chelsea Hall one place behind in 15th.
In the 49er fleet David Gilmour and Sam Phillips were seventh in the repechage fleet, with Will Phillips and Rhys Mara 13th.
Luke Parkinson and Fang Warren finished third in the silver fleet, ahead of George Davies and Jack Lloyd in 27th, while Peter Kendall and Harry Bethwaite were third in the bronze fleet.
For more information on the Australian Sailing Team visit www.australiansailingteam.com.au and follow the Team on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AusSailingTeam.
Solid Performance by Team Seaton & McGovern at the 49er World Championships in Marseilles, France (from Rachel Solon, Irish Sailing Association)
Today, Sunday 29 September was the last day of competition at the Seiko 49er World Championships in Marseilles, France. In both the men's 49er and women's 49erFX the day started with a petit final which was made up of the sailors who were in 10th – 20th position in the Gold Fleet and the winner competed in the three final races with the top 10 afterwards. Providence Team IRL's Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern finished in 16th in the petit final which left them in 14th position overall in the regatta.
Commenting on the team's performance, James O'Callaghan, ISA Performance Director stated "A solid performance for Providence Team IRL at the world championships in Marseilles. Just outside their target of top 10, but nonetheless an encouraging start to their Rio 2016 cycle."
It was a good event for Team NZL who won the event with Burking & Tuke and their teammates Hansen & Porebski finished in 2nd place. Australia's Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, London 2012 Gold medalists finished in 5th place.
In the 53 boat women's FX fleet, Ireland's Andrea Brewster and Saskia Tidey who have only been sailing together for two months had a good regatta for their first event finishing 36th. The highlight of the event for the team was a race win in the silver fleet on the penultimate day.
Meanwhile in China, European Champion Annalise Murphy is preparing for the Women's Laser Radial World Championships which start in Rizhao City on Tuesday 01 October and finishes on Monday 07 October.