Kiwis pay penalty

A costly penalty for contact in race five against the Swiss dashed New Zealand’s hopes of a podium finish in the latest round of SailGP action in Dubai. Australia scraped through to the final and won the event after climbing their way back from second-to-last. New Zealand remain second on the season leaderboard, but are now nine points behind Australia and one point ahead of France, who finished second in Dubai. The Kiwis had earlier taken out race four with Great Britain second and France third.

Pero Cameron’s peek at his Tall Blacks depth proved fruitless and a little frustrating in a tough Fiba World Cup qualifying double-header in the Middle East. The New Zealanders, who had already clinched a spot at next year’s World Cup with a 6-0 record in Group E, followed Friday’s 77-65 loss to Lebanon with an even more dispiriting 17-point (92-75) loss to Jordan in Amman yesterday to wrap up the November Fiba window. Cameron took a severely understrength squad north for the doubleheader, missing most of his heavy hitters who were either otherwise engaged with their pro teams or resting up in the break for international play, and they proved short of the mark.

Ethan Rusbatch puts up a shot in the Tall Blacks’ World Cup qualifying loss to Jordan .