Sailing: Sailors' success in UK

Four of the six Northland sailors achieved top 10 finishes in the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta in Weymouth, England.

Kerikeri laser sailors Andy Maloney and Olympic-bound Andrew Murdoch sailed in the gold medal race while the women's match racing crew skippered by Algies Bay's Stephanie Hazard and crewed by Whangarei's Jenna Hansen finished seventh.

After a week of tumultuous weather at the final Olympic warm-up event, the sun finally came out on Saturday and the wind moderated to a perfect 15 knots for the lasers' medal race.

It started to build for the 470 races, and then reached a fresh 20-22 knots for the RS:X windsurfer race. In the laser fleet, Maloney sailed a great race, pushing regatta winner Tom Slingsby around the course for a second place finish in the medal race, moving him up to seventh overall.

With double points on offer in the medal round, Murdoch finished in a disappointing ninth place and went backwards in the standings to finish in ninth overall.

Hazard's crew did all the hard work in the repechage to reach the quarterfinals and was then matched against second ranked Claire Leroy's crew from France in the quarterfinal.

The Kiwi team were well beaten by the French crew in the best-of-three series, but that wasn't unexpected with the French eventually winning the gold medal, beating Claire Price of Australia in the final.

Kerikeri's Olympic-bound 49er crew Blair Tuke and Tauranga helmsman Peter Burling just missed out on the medal round, finishing in 12th in the gold fleet, while young Whangarei helmsman Marcus Hansen and his crew Josh Porebski finished one place behind in 13th.

The only Kiwi medals at the event went to Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie who won their 470 dress rehearsal, while Paul Snow Hansen with Jason Saunders achieved bronze in the men's 470 class.

In total, the NZL Sailing Team finished as the fourth best nation in the competition, with six teams finishing inside the top 10 placings.