Aleh & Powrie win Silver at Sail for Gold

Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie have collected the silver medal at 2009 Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta winning last night’s medal race. The regatta has just wrapped up in Weymouth, England rounding out the final event of the ISAF Sailing World Cup 2008-2009.

Sailing in a fleet of 32 in the Women’s 470 double-handed class the pair are in their rookie year in this Olympic class. Making the most of the opportunity to sail at the 2012 Olympic sailing venue, Aleh and Powrie were up against some hot talent from Britain, Europe and Australia and will be pleased to have come away with the silver medal.

The kiwis made an impressive start to the regatta winning both races on day one and continuing to lead the fleet over subsequent days relishing the windy conditions on offer in Weymouth. However they were overtaken on the penultimate day and had to fight back from 4th position for a podium finish. Winning last night’s final medal race secured them silver behind Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout of the Netherlands.

Other top ten finishes came for seasoned Finn campaigner Dan Slater who finished 7th, and also for Kate Ellingham in the Women’s RS:X Windsurfing with an 8th place. In both of these classes sailors were disappointed when last night’s medal race was abandoned and their chance to improve their standing never came.

“In the Finn fleet most of us were disappointed not to have waited for the breeze a bit longer as we were all so close on points (even the guy in 8th could have still got to the podium),” says Dan Slater. “The top 10 were all changed, ready to go and on the ramp with sails up at 11:40am when two guns went off abandoning the Finn racing for the day. This ended the regatta.”

Staged at the venue for the next Olympic Games sailing regatta the Skandia Sail for Gold event this year attracted strong entry numbers with hot talent from the British and Australian sailing teams in particular. The NZL Sailing Team had nine entries across five classes including 2008 Olympians Dan Slater and Jo Aleh.

Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta
New Zealand’s Final Results

Finn (Fleet of 37)
Dan Slater – 7th

Women’s 470 (Fleet of 32)
Jo Aleh & Olivia Powrie – 2nd

Men’s 470 (Fleet of 55)
Paul Snow-Hansen & Jason Saunders – 16th

Men’s RS:X Windsurfing (Fleet of 44)
Antonio Cozzolino – 12th
Richard Ellis – 23rd

Women’s RS:X Windsurfing (Fleet of 27)
Kate Ellingham - 8th
Justina Sellers – 18th
Stefanie Williams – 19th
Jazmine Lynch – 21st

ISAF Sailing World Cup
The ISAF Sailing World Cup 2008-2009 consists of the following events:

16-21 Dec 2008 – Sail Melbourne The Asia Pacific Regatta, Melbourne, Australia
25-31 Jan 2009 – US SAILING’s Rolex Miami OCR, Miami, USA
4-10 April 2009 – Trofeo SAR Princess Sofia MAPFRE, Palma, Spain
18-24 April 2009 – Semaine Olympique Francaise, Hyeres, France
27-31 May 2009 – Delta Lloyd Regatta, Medemblik, Netherlands
20-28 June 2009 – Kieler Woche, Kiel, Germany
14-19 Sept 2009 – Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, Weymouth, Great Britain