Kiwi pair go from mates to rivals
Josh Junior admits he’s under-prepared for his defence of the Finn Gold Cup that has huge ramifications to the New Zealand yachting team for the Tokyo Olympics.
Snaring the title again in Portugal over the next week would be huge for Junior, but simply beating his good friend and America’s Cup team-mate Andy Maloney might be more important.
They are in one of the most hotly contested positions for any Kiwi athletes hoping to make the Games.
Both have recorded selection-worthy results over the past four years though Junior’s 2019 breakthrough win at the Gold Cup, where he was the first New Zealander to snare the class’ world championship, probably gives him an edge.
Team New Zealand’s long and successful America’s Cup programme that wrapped up in March, and the irresistible opportunity to get involved in New Zealand’s debut in the subsequent SailGP season, have left Junior and Maloney short of time in Olympic yachting’s biggest oneman boat.
They have arrived in Porto fresh from the action-packed SailGP season-opener in Bermuda that was contested in 50-foot foiling catamarans. Adapting to the far more sedate Finn in such a competitive field brings its own challenges, especially after last year’s regatta was wiped out by the global health pandemic.
‘‘It’s great to be back in Europe. It will
be interesting to see how the rest of the fleet has developed, and I’m sure everyone will be going very quickly,’’ Junior said on the Gold Cup website.
Junior and Maloney have campaigned together in this Olympic cycle and made a pact that whoever loses their personal battle for the Olympic spot will support the other as a personal coach for the Games in Japan.
Junior knows he carries expectations but has tried to dampen them in a fleet that includes four previous world champions and is stacked with talent such as Hungary’s Zsombor Berecz who successfully defended his European title last month, as well as 2016 Olympic gold medallist Giles Scott, from Britain.
‘‘I don’t think winning in 2019 changes
much, but I think it just showed that Andy and I were on the right track,’’ Junior said.
Junior contested the Finn at the Rio Olympics, finishing seventh. Maloney missed out on a place for the 2016 Games when he was edged for the Laser class berth by Sam Meech, who finished third.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s 470 crew for Tokyo, Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox, have shown good form to be battling for a medal at the European championships in Vilamoura, southern Portugal, overnight. They finished fleet racing in second place to qualify strongly for the medal race featuring the top 10 crews and worth double points.