NZL wins Women's 420 World Champs

New Zealand’s latest sailing World Champions are Alexandra Maloney and Bianca Barbrich-Bacher who have just won the Women’s 420 World Championship in Italy. 

New Zealand won silver in the Open 420 World Championship with Francisco Lardies and Finn Drummond finishing in second place behind the new title holders from Greece.

The 2009 Open and Women’s 420 World Championships have just concluded in Riva del Garda, Italy.
Maloney (17 years old) and Barbarich-Bacher (16 years old) clinched the Women’s title on the final day of racing having started the day lying second overall. A win, a 4th and a 16th in the three races sailed on the final day of the regatta was enough to put them nine points clear of Camilla Marino and Claudia Soricelli from Italy.

Alexandra Maloney and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher have twice represented New Zealand in the 420 class at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships. In both 2008 [29er class] and 2009 [420 class] they finished in 4th place. The pair represents the Murrays Bay Sailing Club on Auckland’s North Shore.

In August 2007 Maloney signalled her talent to the sailing world when she finished 3rd at the Optimist World Championships, a significant achievement in the enormous fleet of young boys and girls that compete in the junior Optimist class. Barbarich-Bacher has the experience of international campaigning in the Olympic 470 class as crew for Shelley Hesson during the last Olympic build up.

They were the only New Zealanders competing in the Women’s division, and they came out on top over 83 other boats.

In the open fleet the New Zealand achieved a silver medal winning performance from Francisco Lardies and Finn Drummond. Luke Stevenson and Sam Bullock were 7th with James Turner and Marcus Hansen finishing in 7th place.

Talented youngsters Logan Dunning-Beck and Ben Goodwin missed out on competing in the gold fleet racing due to two OCS rulings in the qualifying rounds, but went on to top the silver fleet finals series.

The double-handed 420 dinghy is sailed predominantly by youth aged sailors and is seen as a pre-curser to the Olympic double-handed dinghy – the 470. New Zealand’s best ever performance at the 420 World Championships was when the kiwi team made a clean sweep of the gold, silver and bronze medals in both the Open and the Women’s Championship in 2006 when the event was staged here in New Zealand off Takapuna Beach.

Click here for the regatta website and full results.
2009 420 World Championships
New Zealand’s Final Results
Women’s 420 World Championships
1st Alexandra Maloney & Bianca Barbarich-Bacher

Open 420 World Championships
2nd (Gold fleet) Francisco Lardies & Finn Drummond
7th (Gold fleet) Luke Stevenson & Sam Bullock
12th (Gold fleet) James Turner & Marcus Hansen
1st (Silver fleet) Logan Dunning-Beck & Ben Goodwin
16th (Silver fleet) Alexander Munro & Sam Schofield