Youth olympics: Bay team fall victim to Thais

The beach volleyball pairing of Tauranga's Nate Moore and Rotorua's Kahurangi Robinson have finished 17th at the Youth Olympics. Photo / Supplied

Beach volleyball

The Bay of Plenty pairing of Nate Moore and Kahurangi Robinson have fallen 0-2 to Thailand in the elimination rounds of the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

The weather co-operated for the first time in days, dropping below 30C and providing some rain to toughen the sand. But Tauranga's Moore, 18, and Rotorua's Robinson, 17, struggled against their Thai counterparts, losing the first set 21-11.

"They played poorly in the first set," coach Darrell Boyd said, who attested to the combination's continued development together. "They had more accuracy in their passing and they began to break down the opposition a little bit more," he said.

"But we never quite got the lead in the match to give us the impetus to move forward."

The team will continue to play together, even given the distance between the players.

Robinson often travels to Mount Maunganui for training and will continue to do so ahead of the pair's tilt at the New Zealand tour which begins next month. The team finished 17th in the competition and will use this experience to hone their passing skills and technical elements, Moore said.

Windsailing

Local competitors had mixed results in difficult winds on a final day of competition filled with delays and cancellations.

While the wind came to the course in abundance, it brought with it tricky conditions for the sailors to navigate that coach Bruce Kendall described as the most difficult he had seen anywhere in the world this year.

The windsurfers, Coral Headey, 15, Tauranga, and Finn Croft, 16, Auckland, had difficult races to navigate. Headey finished 15th in her final race, resulting in a 16th placing for the overall competition.

"I'd like to be higher, I know I can be higher," Headey said.

"I'm really happy with what's been happening and I can see there's a lot of potential to really get up there."

Golf

Wellington No.1 Julianne Alvarez and Waikato golfer Nick Coxon are in the middle of the pack at the halfway stage of the Mixed Team's event at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. The Kiwis, who opened the tournament with a four-under par 68 in the round one fourball, combined for a one-over par 73 in the round two Foursomes to be in 16th place.

The pair will begin the final round, where both their individual stroke play scores will count towards the team's four round total, 11 shots back from the leaders.