NZL Sailing Team top ten in every Gold Fleet

The Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships have started to take shape, with all fleets now separated into the Gold, Silver or Bronze groupings based on qualifying results so far. Every sailor on the NZL Sailing Team that is racing this week has made the Gold Fleets, and NZ has a top ten standing in each class.

It has also been confirmed that New Zealand has earned a spot on the start line at seven Olympic classes, with the Men’s 49er and Laser being added to the five previously confirmed classes on Thursday night. Based on results so far, it is looking probable that NZ will qualify in the Women’s 470 and Men’s RS:X at this event.

The 49er fleet swapped their rest day Thursday for one race, and Peter Burling and Blair Tuke had a strong finish in third. Their points earned during the qualifying round have stuck with them now in the gold fleet where they sit in fourth overall, and they are tied in points for third only one point behind second.

“We just need to keep knocking off good performances” said Peter. The 49ers will be racing early Friday morning at 9:00 am in the centre course of Bathers Bay.

The Men’s RS:X class saw some topsy-turvy results today in their three races, again due to a strange breeze. Both JP Tobin and Tom Ashley had results with scores under five and over twenty. JP now sits in the favoured position of seventh overall, and Tom has slipped back to ninth.

Three of the famous five men’s Laser sailors are within the top fifteen overall, this was a big climb up the leader board especially for Andy Maloney and Mike Bullot.

Unfortunately Andrew Murdoch received a second yellow flag today which rendered him out of the first race. Penalty aside, Andrew had two good races today and still remains within the top ten in the overall standings of the Mens’ Laser in eighth.

Tomorrow the Mens’ RS:X and Lasers will have a rest day, and Saturday will be their final two races before Sunday’s medal races for the top ten competitors.

Friday and Saturday will see two races per day for the women’s 470 and three for the men’s 49er.

The NZL Sailing Team featured today on the half hour highlights TV programme, and this can be viewed online www.sailing.org/tv

Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships
New Zealand’s current standings

49er
4th Gold Fleet - Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (3)
11th Silver Fleet- Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (18)
13th Bronze Fleet- Chris Burgess and Rohan Swanson (12)

Men’s Laser
8th Gold Fleet- Andrew Murdoch (50DNF, 7)
14th Gold Fleet- Andy Maloney (14, 3)
15st Gold Fleet- Mike Bullot (38, 10)
31st Gold Fleet- Sam Meech (23, 42)
45th Gold Fleet- Josh Junior (42, 41)
34th Silver Fleet- Tom Saunders (50DNC, 11)

RS:X Men’s
7th Gold Fleet- JP Tobin (3, 24, 2)
9th Gold Fleet- Tom Ashley (20, 10, 4)
6th Silver Fleet - Antonio Cozzolino (15, 5, 4)
28th Silver Fleet- Carl Evans (14, 28, 21)

470 Women
6th Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie (7, 4, 14, 25, 7, 1)
43rd Vicki Francis and Erica Dawson (32, 43, 43, 44, 44, 40)

About this event

The Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships feature the world’s best sailors in all ten Olympic classes from over 80 nations. Over 1200 Sailors will take part, contending for country qualification for the 2012 Olympic Games, and the World Championship titles.

The event officially opened on December 3rd with the start of the Women’s Match Racing and this class will race for the duration of the event, due to the round-robin format of match racing. All other classes will have seven days of racing that conclude with a double point medal race for the top ten.

The first week of racing (December 5 – 11) featured the Women’s RS:X windsurfer, Women’s single person dinghy class Laser Radial, Men’s double handed class 470 and the Men’s one person dinghy heavy, the Finn class. NZ’s top two results were also personal bests for the campaigns, 8th overall for Paul Snow Hansen with Jason Saunders in the 470, and 10th overall for Sara Winther in the Laser Radial.

The sailors of week one have qualified New Zealand in all four classes that have completed racing.

The second week of racing (December 12-18) now hosts all other classes, the Men’s RS:X Windsurfer, Men’s single person dinghy class Laser, Women’s double handed class 470, Men’s Skiff 49er.

Visit the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships for results, tracking, live updates, and much more news from on and off the water. www.perth2011.com

A daily TV programme of approximately 25 minutes will also be available online www.sailing.org/tv