Olympic Sailing Results for New Zealand 15 August

Olympic Sailing Results for New Zealand 15 August

Racing is underway for the entire New Zealand sailing team at the Olympic Games in Athens. Seasoned Olympic medallist Barbara Kendall won her first race and sits in 3rd place after her first day of sailing.

Shifty conditions in the morning caused some delays but developed into the stronger meltami breeze from the north providing heavy air with some big wind shifts and temperatures of around 30 degrees. Results are on the board for all of the eight classes in which New Zealand is represented.

New Zealand’s Overall Standings:

Women’s Mistral – Barbara Kendall – 3rd (after 2 races)
Men’s Mistral – Thomas Ashley – 8th – (after 1 race)
Finn – Dean Barker – 4th (after 4 races)
Europe – Sarah Macky – 8th (after 2 races)
Laser – Hamish Pepper – 16th (after 2 races)
Women’s 470 – Shelley Hesson & Linda Dickson - 5th (after 4 races)
Men’s 470 – Andrew Brown & Jamie Hunt – 27th (after 4 races)
Yngling – Sharon Ferris, Joanna White & Kylie Jameson – 9th (after 4 races)

Barbara Kendall won race 1 in the Women’s Mistral overnight. “It was good to see her go out and smack it to them in that first race,” says Team Manager, Don Cowie. Her second race saw her having to make up ground after an incident on the start line required her to do a penalty turn. She climbed back up into 9th and sits in 3rd place overall after day 1.

19 year-old Thomas Ashley from Devonport, Auckland is 8th after his first day on the water. Results from the initial race in the Men’s Mistral class have been discarded and only one result sits on the board. Ashley had a consistent race and finished just under three minutes behind race winner Miarczynski from Poland.

Finn sailor Dean Barker has moved two places up the leader board overnight into 4th spot after 4 out of 11 scheduled races, though racing on the Finn course was not without hiccups.

“There was a lot of capsizing in the Finn class,” says Cowie “Dean was winning race 1 when they got a huge wind shift and blew it up.” The race was abandoned and re-started.

Sarah Macky had mixed results on her first day placing 14th in race 1 and 4th in race 2. She is in 8th position overall with 2004 World Champion Siren Sunby of Norway in the lead. Hamish Pepper started his Olympic campaign overnight and lies in 9th spot after 2 races.

Women’s 470 pair Shelley Hesson and Linda Dickson has improved their standing overnight moving up to 5th position after 4 races.

“The 470 girls had a good day,” says Cowie. Racing resumes again for them tomorrow as it does for the Men’s double-handed 470 crew. Andrew Brown and Jamie Hunt will be hoping to improve on their place at the back of the fleet.

The kiwi Yngling crew of Sharon Ferris, Joanna White and Kylie Jameson had a much better day of racing on Day 2, coming home with two 3rd places, which sees them climb up the leader board into 9th spot.

“The girls had a very good day and came ashore very happy but also very tired,” say’s their coach Harold Bennett, “It has been a long hard day but they have reaped the rewards of sheer guts and hard work.”

Meteorologist Roger Badham predicts that winds will be stronger again for day 3 on the course. All the New Zealand sailors will be back on the water with the exception of Kendall and Ashley who have a reserve day in the board sailing classes.

For full results and live mark roundings click the link: http://www.sailing.org/olympics2004/default.asp

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