Sarah Macky Qualify's Class for Olympics

Sarah Macky Qualify's Class for Olympics

2003 ISAF World Championships
11 - 25 September 2003
Bay of Cadiz, Spain

Europe sailor Sarah Macky has qualified New Zealand for an entry at the 2004 Olympic Games after finishing in 6th place overall at the ISAF World Championships in Spain.

The Europe class is now the fourth class to qualify for the Olympics, joining the men's and women's Mistral and men's 470, which were qualified at earlier events.

High Performance Manager, Peter Lester comments, "it's great that Sarah has qualified the class just under a year out from the Games, which is the aim of this Championship for Yachting New Zealand".

Macky finished just outside of the individual nomination criteria, meaning a trial will be held in Auckland in January to determine who will take up the spot at the Olympics. Peter Lester believes that this is a positive thing for New Zealand's typically yul Tobin and Barbara Kendall are currently both in 4th position overall in their respective fleets, and will be aiming for a top five result to gain the New Zealand Olympic nomination.

While Sharon Ferris and her crew will compete in their prealtimate races before the final day of racing on Saturday. Currently in 20th place overall they will be striving to qualify the Yngling for an Olympic spot.

NZL Results:

Europe: (after 11 races, 116 entries)
9th - Sarah Macky (17, 3)
57th - Kate O'Brien (OCS, 38)

Mistral (Men): (after 6 races, 116 entries)
4th - Jon-Paul Tobin (2, 17)
28th - Tom Ashley (14, 1)
37th- James Wells (7, 18)
64th - Matthew McCormick (39, 36)

Mistral (Women): (after 6 races, 60 entries)
4th - Barbara Kendall (11, 9)
29th - Julie Worth (31, 23)
34th - Sheena McKinnon (12, 46)
53rd - Anita Purdie (52, 52)

Yngling: (after 8 races, 41 entries)
20th - Sharon Ferris / Joanna White / Sara Winther (23, 6)
32nd - Alesha Thorp

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