Successful penultimate day for NZL Finn and 470

On the second to last day of full racing at their 2012 World Championships, the NZL Sailing Team’s Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie confirmed their rank going into tomorrow’s final two gold fleet races, and Dan Slater took three steps up the Finn Gold Cup leaderboard.

Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie had a 7th and 9th place finish in their two races today in Barcelona, dropping them back to third overall, but points are close for the top five and anything is possible for the last two full races before the medal race on Saturday night (NZT). The first and second placed teams (GBR and NED) are tied in overall points six ahead of the Kiwi duo, and fourth (FRA) is only one point behind.

This London 2012 Olympic bound pair will be looking to match or beat their performance of the last two world championships where together they claimed Silver, and Bronze.

Paul Snow Hansen and Jason Saunders slid down a couple places in the men’s 470 division to 24th, and will also have two races on Friday night (NZT).

Racing at the Finn Gold Cup was described as the toughest, roughest conditions that most of the fleet would have sailed in years and although Dan Slater handled the conditions well, his improvement wasn’t quite enough to make it into tomorrow’s double point medal race. He progressed three places up to 16th overall, and will have one last race tomorrow afternoon.

New Zealander Matt Coutts also took a huge jump up in the overall standings with today’s three races, from 36th overall to now 22nd. He had a clear lead at the top mark of the second race but ended up with a 9th in that one, and followed it up with a 6th. Matt’s Uncle, Rob Coutts, has held his position in 59th in the 94 boat strong fleet.

Sara Winther too had big breezes at the Laser Radial World Championships in Germany, and improved her standings from 16th overall to 13th in the fleet of 133 boats. She did well in today’s two races with a 3rd and 9th place finish, and as such, has made the gold fleet for the final six races of her event.

May 18th current standings

470 Womens World Championship
54 boats, after 10 races
3rd - Jo Aleh & Olivia (Polly) Powrie

470 Men’s World Championship
95 boats, after 10 races
24th - Paul Snow Hansen & Jason Saunders

Finn Gold Cup (World Championship)
94 boats, 9 races
16th – Dan Slater
22nd – Matt Coutts
59th – Rob Coutts

Laser Radial World Championship
133 boats, 6 races
13th -  Sara Winther

The RS:X World Championships were sailed in March, and JP Tobin came away with a Bronze medal, setting the bar high for the team to follow. Andy Maloney grabbed up a bronze medal at the Laser World Championships which finished on May 10th. One day later, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke finished the 49er World Championships with a silver medal.

Daily updates for all events including results will be posted via the NZL Sailing Team’s Facebook Page and Twitter accounts. Further press releases will be issued from Yachting New Zealand.