Tauranga sailors miss out at World Cup final

TOP CLASS: Alex Maloney, left, and Tauranga's Molly Meech finished outside the medals at the World Cup final in Santander. PHOTO: FILE

The Kiwi pair of Alex Maloney and Molly Meech (Tauranga) were left ruing a penalty before the World Cup final in Santander that cost them a chance of a medal.

The Olympic 49erFX silver medallists finished third in the double-points medal race but it wasn't enough to move them up from fifth overall. Maloney and Meech needed to win the medal race and hope other results went their way to claim bronze.

That opportunity seemed unlikely after their boat, colloquially named Lola, was deemed to be underweight when measured prior to the regatta. It meant they were loaded with a 50 per cent penalty on the first three races, leaving them in 13th after the first day in the 15-boat fleet at the invitation-only event.

They recovered well, posting top-three finishes in their last six races and also picked up two wins across the 13 races. But they had given up too much of a gap and were left to think about what might have been.

"The week was really challenging for Molly and I," Maloney said. "We made plenty of mistakes during the event but also did a lot of things right.

"Finishing this event, we have a few regrets, definitely, but we also left everything out on the water and we are left really motivated for our next regatta."

The pair now head to Kiel Week in Germany, a regatta they have targeted as one to try different things as they look to turn silver into gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Fellow Kiwis Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey (Tauranga) finished fourth in the 49er medal race to finish eighth overall in the 16-boat fleet.

It was a solid result for the pair who are New Zealand's best 49er crew on current form with uncertainty over the Olympic futures of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who are heavily involved in Emirates Team New Zealand's America's Cup campaign.

Porebski and Rippey had six top-five results but also made a couple of costly mistakes, not least of all being black flagged after being caught over the start line in race three.
New Zealand's Sam Bullock finished ninth overall in the IKA Formula Kite.