NZ Herald Focus Sport’s Cheree Kinnear wraps day five and Sailing Professor Mark Orams reviews the sailing. Video / NZ Herald / Sky SportBlair Tuke and Peter Burling have improved to fifth place on the overall leaderboard of the 49er regatta, bouncing back from a rough start at the Tokyo Olympics.
The reigning Olympic champions could manage only a 12th-placed finish in the first of 12 races yesterday, unable to recover from being shuffled toward the back of the fleet on the opening leg of the race. They had no such troubles in Wednesday’s two races.
In race two, Burling and Tuke were third after the first leg, but improved their position soon after to move into second. Maintaining their position on legs two and three, Burling and Tuke were unable to close the gap on the leading Spanish duo of Diego Botin le Chever and Iago Lopez Marra, who held the lead from start to finish.
The result was enough to lift the Kiwi duo to sixth in the standings, where they remained after the third race of the event.
The duo finished eighth in the third race of their campaign, starting in the middle of the fleet and being unable to make much ground throughout.
In the 470, Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox have made a terrific start to their campaign, sitting second on the leaderboard after two races.
Snow-Hansen and Willcox finished sixth and second in the first two races of their campaign.
The pair started well in the opening race, but fell off the pace as the crews from Sweden and Australia shot to the front of the pack. The Kiwis were left jostling for positions in the top 10, but a slow third leg saw them fall to seventh.
They improved slightly toward the back end of the race, finishing sixth.
Their second race was a much close affair as the differing tactics of crews made for some great racing.
The Kiwis were again among the top 10 crews in the race, finishing the first two legs in third before jumping to second on the third. After falling back to fourth soon after and looking like they were set to lose touch with the leaders, a well-sailed fifth leg saw them shoot back into second and chase the team from Brazil to the finish line.
While they were unable to catch the Brazilians, they crossed the line comfortably in second, ending the day in the same position on the ladder.
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Josh Junior also found his rhythm on the Tokyo waters, with two finishes inside the top 10 in the Finn regatta seeing him sneak up to eighth on the ladder.
After finishing 12th and 10th in the first two races respectively, Junior again got off to a less than impressive start in today’s opening race, rounding the first marker in 12th position.
A dream second leg saw him improve to sixth around the second marker. While he dropped a spot on the third leg, he again improved down the even-numbered leg, jumping from seventh to third where he ultimately finished the race – just five seconds off the leader.
Junior finished seventh in his second race of the day. While he was able to jump up into fourth on the second leg, Junior spent most of the race in seventh position, where he ultimately finished.
How our sailing crews are placed:
Blair Tuke and Peter Burling (49er) – Fifth overall after 4/12 racesPaul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (men’s 470) – Second overall after 2/10 racesJosh Junior (men’s Finn) – Eighth overall after 4/10 racesSam Meech (men’s Laser) – 15th overall after 6/10 racesAlex Maloney and Molly Meech (49er FX) – 13th overall after 3/12 races