George Gautrey. Photo / World Sailing
George Gautrey hopes establishing the colour of New Zealand’s only medal at the Sailing World Championships early tomorrow morning will be far more straightforward than it was winning it.
The 25-year-old ILCA 7 (Laser) sailor secured the country’s first podium spot in The Hague overnight on a dramatic final day of gold-fleet racing.
Starting in third overall - and looking for low scores in both remaining qualifying races - Gautrey was forced to watch helplessly from the side of the racecourse after being disqualified for a false start in the first race.
“Picking up a black flag [disqualification] was obviously a bit disappointing, but in the gold fleet you have to push the envelope, and I just got caught,” Gautrey said.
“At the time I was a bit gutted, I had my fingers crossed as they were going around, but I was still quite confident in the fact that I had a decent drop and still had one more race to get myself back into it.
“That’s what you come here for, to feel that pressure and feel the weight of it all.”
Gautrey’s consistently low scoring all week - his highest before the BFD was a 26 – and some good fortune kept him in medal contention heading into the final race.
A simple strategy was briefly discussed with coach Mark Howard.
“We spoke before the start about just getting a clean race. It’s been far too easy this event to have messy races – with a 70-boat fleet.
“I got a decent enough start, tacked onto port, and I could see the two guys I knew I needed to beat, Pavlos [Kontides] and Jean Baptiste [Bernaz]. Pavlos was all the way on the right and Jean Baptiste just on my hip.”
Gautrey crossed the finish line in ninth with Cypriot Kontides in 21st and France’s Bernaz in 20th.
An hour after seemingly having his podium hopes in jeopardy, Gautrey was guaranteed his second international silverware of the season – and his first at a world champs since a surprise bronze at the 2019 Laser event.
What’s more, overnight leader Michael Beckett ended up near the back of the fleet in 66th in the second race, allowing the New Zealander to move into second overall.
“I’m pretty happy to have a medal locked up before the medal race. It’s not a position I’ve been in before,” Gautrey said.
“It’s been a super long week, super tough. It’s been quite hard to stay in it, but I’ve enjoyed it.”
Reigning Olympic champion Matt Wearn, on 71 points, is assured of gold with tomorrow’s double-points medal race effectively a shootout for silver between Gautrey and Beckett.
Meanwhile, Tom Saunders narrowly missed out on a spot in the 10-boat finale after dropping one position to 11th with scores of 32 and 17.
The Kiwis’ final positions are enough, however, to ensure New Zealand will be represented in the class at next year’s Olympic Games – with Gautrey and Saunders battling it out for the sole place on the start line over the coming months.
While the day ended on a high for Gautrey, teammate Josh Armit suffered heartbreak in his windfoil quarter-final.
Needing a top-two finish to advance to the semifinal - and keep his medal chances alive - Armit was forced to do a penalty turn following an on-water decision that could have gone either way.
“Josh got a penalty turn after a port-starboard [right of way decision] coming into the gate with the Israelis,” coach Nathan Handley explained.
“You never think you’re in the wrong, but I thought it was a very marginal call. Josh had to do a turn and that was pretty much race over for him.”
Armit finished fourth in the quarter-final and seventh overall.
Though disappointed to be eliminated, the 21-year-old has this season established himself as one of the leading male contenders in the class - with top-ten results at the Princess Sofia Regatta in April, the European championships in May, and last month’s Olympic test event in Marseille.