Kiwi sailors close in on top three ranking
The next three races should determine whether or not Paul Snow-hansen and Dan Willcox can work their way into medal contention at the 470 world championships in Greece.
The Kiwi pair have moved into fourth on the back of a seventh-placed finish in the only race possible due to light winds yesterday (NZT).
It maintained their consistent returns at the regatta which have seen them finish inside the top 10 in all eight races except for their disqualification for being over the startline.
Three races were scheduled overnight and Snow-hansen and Willcox, who were second at last year’s world championships, will need another three low scores to be in contention for a podium finish heading into the double-points top-10 medal race being contested tonight (NZT.
They are presently 19 points behind the third-placed Australian crew of Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan.
It’s a lot of ground to make up but Snowhansen and Willcox will know a couple of bad races from any of the top three teams will change the complexion of the leaderboard.
They need look little further than Sweden’s Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom, who carded an 18th as they struggled in the light winds – they had previously not finished outside the top three in the first seven races.
The Swedes still lead the regatta by eight points over Austria’s David Bargehr and Lukas Ma¨ hr but can’t afford many more big scores.
‘‘It was a long day in the sun waiting for wind,’’ Willcox said.
‘‘We got only one race completed today due to the light and tricky conditions.
‘‘ It was the most patchy day we’ve had with the breeze but we raced well and scored ourselves another keeper.
‘‘We are now in fourth overall and in a good position to move forward again tomorrow with three races on the schedule. Our goal is to move into the medal race with a chance of finishing on the podium.
‘‘ Points are tight and tomorrow will be a great battle, which we are excited about,’’ he added.
Agnieszka Skrzypulec and Irmina Mrozek, of Poland, extended their lead in the women’s competition as they continued their run of top-three finishes, meaning they still have a discard race in hand should they post a big score in any of the three races tonight.
They extended their lead to 13 points over the British pair of Hannah Mills and Eilidh Mcintyre.
However, enjoyed some good fortune yesterday when they were over the starting line in the first attempt to start race eight but, as the race was abandoned, the penalty was cleared and they went on to finish third.