Junior’s gold medal chances suffer a big blow — literally
WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s Josh Junior will race for gold at the Sailing World Championships today but he almost had it in his grasp yesterday before the Finn fleet was quite literally blown upside down.
The 28yearold was leading overall at the start of the day’s final race, and was comfortable in sixth at the top mark for the final time, but a massive storm blew into the course, causing seven of the top nine boats to capsize, including Junior.
The New Zealander fought back to finish 15th in the race to leave him third overall.
He is now eight points behind Sweden’s Max Salminen, which is not an insurmountable margin in today’s doublepoints medal race.
Junior has now made an official protest to have the race thrown out, given the wind strength was nearly double the racing limit, but he is confident he can push for gold despite yesterday’s setback.
‘‘It has completely influenced the outcome of the regatta, but I’m still in the mix to win and that’s what I want to do, so tomorrow is about building on that,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m a little bit gutted but I’m still in the hunt. I had a good first race. I’ll keep chipping away,’’ Junior said.
If Junior’s protest is upheld, he will be restored to first place overall.
Fellow New Zealander Andy Maloney is ninth and will also feature in the top10 medal race, and the pair have ensured New Zealand has earned a spot in the Finn class at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Sam Meech has slipped a place to fourth in the Laser with one race today and the medal race tomorrow.
He is also likely to qualify a spot for New Zealand in the Laser fleet in Tokyo.
Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn remain second in the 49er with their race abandoned yesterday.
Paul SnowHansen and Dan Willcox missed out on a place in the men’s 470 medal race and finished 12th overall, which means they will need to try to qualify the boat for the Olympics at a subsequent qualifying regatta.
Alex Maloney and Molly Meech are eighth in the 49erFX with three more races scheduled today before their medal race. — RNZ