Olympic breakthrough for women
London provided the success stories of reports FRED WOODCOCK.
There is little doubt that 2012 will be remembered in sailing circles as the year that Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie made a significant breakthrough for women’s sailing.
Not only had it been 20 years since New Zealand won an Olympic medal in a class other than boardsailing, but until Aleh and Powrie’s magnificent gold in the women’s 470 on the waters of Weymouth, no New Zealand female crew had won an Olympic title in a boat.
Aleh and Powrie, both from Auckland, were tied with Brits Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark going into the all-important medal race, but the Kiwis made the right move at the start and never looked back.
The Brits were last at the first cross and never recovered as Aleh and Powrie claimed New Zealand’s second sailing medal of the regatta. Two days earlier, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke were the recipients of New Zealand’s 100th Olympic medal when they claimed silver in the men’s 49er skiff class, behind Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, of Australia.
Burling went on to skipper Team Korea in the America’s Cup world series while Tuke was to race in the Sydney to Hobart. But both have committed to campaign again in the 49er for Rio. Aleh and Powrie have also recommitted to Rio in the 470.
There were also top-8s at the Olympics for Paul SnowHansen and Jason Saunders (fifth in men’s 470), Hamish Pepper and Jim Turner (fifth in the Star), Andrew Murdoch, (fifth in the Laser), JP Tobin (seventh in the men’s RS:X windsurfer) and Dan Slater (seventh in the Finn).
At world championships level, Burling and Tuke were second, Tobin claimed bronze, as did Andy Maloney in the Laser world championship, despite missing Olympic selection.
In the bigger boats, Team New Zealand continue to lead the way in testing of the AC72s, which will be used for next year’s America’s Cup. Defenders Oracle are currently out of action after a serious mishap in training when they capsized and broke the wingsail in October.
There was better news for the Americans in the smaller AC45 world series, though, as they won the inaugural series from Team New Zealand, who were also bridesmaids with their Volvo Ocean Race entry Camper, which made a late charge but couldn’t overhaul race winner Groupama and had to settle for second.
This was another year where tennis only really existed in this country for a fortnight. The annual ASB Classic and Heineken Open look like they might be nice to watch from the hospitality tables, but they might as well be played on Mars for all the impact New Zealand players have on them. At least in an on-court sense.
Off it, Sacha Jones created the only real tennis news story of 2012, by declaring the ASB Classic would be the last time she played tennis as a New Zealander.
She would instead make use of having an Australian parent and passport and play as an Aussie, once her run at the classic ended. Having been awarded a wildcard into the main draw, on the strength of being a Kiwi, the then New Zealand No 2 promptly lost to Britain’s Elena Baltacha in the first round and was widely condemned.
The first week of January is a slow one for news and rather than anonymously slipping away to her next tournament, in Hobart, the 22-year-old Jones left with her ears ringing to the tune of an outraged talkback nation.
It was all a bit unnecessary but the saddest part is that it was the only time all year anyone gave a hoot about a New Zealand tennis player.
For the record, Jones will finish 2012 with a career-high singles ranking of 150.
Marina Erakovic plugged away, quietly achieving career-best rankings as well. The 24-year-old is now 66th in