Sailing: Puff of hope for Kiwis

A thrilling last-gasp win over Norway on Tuesday squeezed New Zealand through to the Soling semifinals and kept alive their hopes of a medal at the Olympic Games regatta.

Skipper Rod Davis, Don Cowie and Alan Smith had looked set for elimination from the keelboat event after having lost three of their four races in the quarterfinal round-robin on Sydney harbour.

In their final race of the day, against the Norwegians, they trailed down the final run until they caught a puff of air just metres from the finish line.

It was enough to get them past their opposition and into a countback.

The ensuing three-way tie between New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands was so close that it was finally decided on the position of the boats after last week's fleet races.

The upshot was that New Zealand will face world No 1 Germany in one best-of-five semifinal on Friday, while Denmark and Norway are paired off in the other.

The winners will sail for gold on Saturday, while the losing semifinalists will decide the bronze.

As they crossed the finish line against Norway, the New Zealanders leapt up in celebration.

``How many lives have you used up?'' one supporter asked as the boat came into the marina at Rushcutters Bay.

``About 25,000,'' Cowie replied with a smile. ``An inch is as good as a mile, and it was an inch.''

Smith admitted that the crew felt their medal chances had evaporated over the closing stretch.

``We were probably thinking it's all over rover, but you never give up,'' he said.

``Then down at the bottom of the run, the wind just started to go left and we were getting the leftie first. We gybed into a little bit of a puff and it just carried us forward that couple of feet.''

Earlier, New Zealand opened with a win over Russia, before successive losses against Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany saw them on the brink of exiting.

Against both the Danes and the Dutch, the New Zealanders had a good start, but found themselves shaded downwind.

The race against Germany was also close, with German skipper Jochen Schuemann, a triple gold medallist and a two-time winner in the class, getting the better start.

The New Zealanders got into the lead during one of the windward legs, but were again caught downwind.

Smith said the patchy conditions made it tough for the boat in front to defend downwind.

``When the breeze is even and you're behind, there's not much you can do,'' he said.

``But if the breeze is uneven and you're in a spot and the other guys gets a puff, he's going to make a huge gain.''

In the Star keelboats, Gavin Brady and Jamie Gale dropped to ninth overall after six of the 11 races.

The United States-based pair opened with a fifth this afternoon to pull themselves to within two points of second place.

But an infringement on another boat in the next race meant they had to complete a 720-degree penalty turn and they went on to finish 15th.

Heading the fleet were defending Olympic champions Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira of Brazil, who had a seven-point lead over Australians Colin Beashel and David Giles, the Atlanta bronze medallists.

In the Europe class, Sarah Macky also had placings of fifth and 15th to be 11th overall with three races to go.

Laser sailor Peter Fox had his best result of the regatta so far with an eighth in his only race of the afternoon, but he remained down the fleet at 21st overall.

The Laser class has again turned out to be largely a duel between Brazil's Olympic champion, Robert Scheidt, and 1996 silver medallist Ben Ainslie, with the Briton holding a 14-point advantage with four races to go.

Finn sailor Clifton Webb returned a 12th and an 11th to be 15th overall.

- NZPA