Junior misses medal by narrowest of margins at world champs

Josh Junior crossed the finish line and gave the thumbs-up but it didn't really mask his disappointment after missing out on a medal on countback at the sailing world championships in Aarhus.

The 28-year-old finished level on points with Pieter-Jan Postma but the Dutchman secured bronze by virtue of having finished ahead of Junior in the medal race.

It was a disappointing outcome for Junior, who led overall heading into yesterday's final race which was struck by a massive squall that caused chaos in the fleet. Junior was one of a handful to capsize and saw his lead evaporate in a barrage of wind and rain.

He still had a good chance of winning gold in today's top 10, double points medal race, but so did five others. Hungary's Zsombor Berecz won the race to snatch gold from Sweden's Max Salminen, with Junior crossing in fourth.

"It was always going to be a close one with six of us pretty much tied on points," he said. "When its like that, it takes a bit of luck. I sailed a good race to finish fourth but not enough to get a medal so Im a bit gutted after the week."

Junior and fellow Kiwi Andy Maloney, who finished 10th in the medal race and 10th overall, have made significant progress since getting back in the Finn after helping Emirates Team New Zealand win the America's Cup.

"There have been some huge improvements since we got back in the boats," Junior said. "Andy and I are working really closely together and we are making some big gains, especially in this light, shifty stuff that we didnt used to sail that well in. We can take that forward and keep improving."

Sam Meech had visions of contesting for a medal in tomorrow's Laser medal race and was fourth overall but was later disaqualified from today's only race (he was initially 22nd) after an incident with Great Britain's Elliot Hanson on the final downwind leg.

Meech was deemed to have not given Hanson enough room after establishing an overlap as the pair were engaged in a real dogfight. He's now slipped back to fifth overall and would need all the stars to align to snatch bronze given he is 15 points off third.

"I was trying to move forward in the fleet and he was really trying to hold me back pretty much the whole race," said Meech, who won his first three races in qualifying. "Not only was I back in the pack trying to catch up but I also had someone trying to stop me. It was a really difficult race.

"Its been a regatta of two halves for me. The first half I felt like I was getting it all right and the second half I feel like I havent got anything right."

It hasn't gone to plan for Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, either, with the Olympic silver medallists struggling all week. But the pair have qualified ninth for the 49erFX medal race and done enough to also qualify the boat for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn lost some ground in the 49er and are now fifth after starting the day in second. Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie are only 10 points behind in sixth and added their second race win of the regatta today.

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders also won the last race of the day in the Nacra 17 and are now 14th with one more day before the medal race. The pair had a horror start to the regatta when a pin broke, causing one of their foils to pop out and putting them out of the first two races.

Strong wind gusts are forecast for tomorrow, which could disrupt racing, but disruptions have been par for the course this week in Aarhus.

Results and standings after the eighth day of the sailing world championships in Aarhus, Denmark, overnight (NZ time):

Laser (165 boats)

1st: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 8 3 7 2 1 2 12 4 2 (14) - 41 points

2nd: Matthew Wearn (AUS) 7 4 1 4 3 1 3 9 (14) 13 - 45 pts

3rd: Elliot Hanson (GBR) 7 9 11 1 2 2 6 13 9 (24) - 60 pts

5th: Sam Meech (NZL) 1 1 1 2 13 4 34 7 13 (56 DSQ) - 75 pts

14th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 6 11 21 10 21 2 (32) 2 18 31 - 121 pts

28th: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 6 4 31 17 5 12 37 (42) 21 - 153 pts

35th: George Gautrey (NZL) 18 14 8 17 21 8 26 32 (34) 15 - 159 pts

106th: Matthew Kempkers (NZL) 40 12 45 45 22 33 28 35 35 (46) - 296 pts

Laser Radial (119 boats)

1st: Emma Plasschaert (BEL) 5 7 1 (15) 9 3 11 7 11 2 - 56 pts

2nd: Paige Railey (USA) 2 1 16 5 7 7 4 (37) 20 3 - 65 pts

3rd: Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 3 2 11 (28) 16 4 14 11 1 - 67 pts

40th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 31 18 41 10 12 29 42 25 (54) 8 - 216 pts

56th: Olivia Christie (NZL) 28 48 51 3 12 8 43 (57) 35 53 - 281 pts

106th: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) (58) 57 54 20 42 50 47 52 15 40 - 377 pts

Finn (90 boats)

1st: Zsombor Berecz (HUN) 13 8 6 (15) 10 5 3 9 7 7 2 - 70 pts

2nd: Max Salminen (SWE) 3 4 16 10 4 1 (21) 8 13 1 14 - 74 pts

3rd: Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) 14 1 3 3 (19) 6 18 12 4 11 4 - 76 pts

4th: Josh Junior (NZL) (25) 3 8 4 8 3 12 7 8 15 8 - 76 pts

10th: Andy Maloney (NZL) 6 13 5 5 11 13 (24) 1 22 6 20 - 102 pts

49er (86 boats)

1st: Tim Fischer / Fabian Graf (GER) 10 11 1 5 4 3 6 5 (19) 5 - 50 pts

2nd: Sime Fantela / Mihovil Fantela (CRO) 6 8 3 1 (25) 15 11 1 4 2 - 51 pts

3rd: Erik Heil / Thomas Ploessel (GER) 5 16 4 11 1 8 3 (27) 9 4 - 61 pts

5th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 8 2 1 2 9 9 (20) 3 17 16 - 67 pts

6th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 7 18 14 5 7 1 15 8 1 (22) - 77 pts

12th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 4 3 (25) 3 4 19 18 9 6 20 - 86 pts

49erFX (60 boats)

1st: Tanja Frank / Lorena Abicht (AUT) 7 2 (25) 9 6 4 12 6 1 7 1 16 - 71 pts

2nd: Sophie Weguelin / Sophie Ainsworth (GBR) 13 7 9 8 (19) 8 15 3 2 1 4 12 - 82

3rd: Annemiek Bekkering / Annette Duetz (NED) 3 (26) 8 4 3 5 1 20 11 8 3 19 - 85 pts

9th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 5 13 6 6 11 4 (30) 19 4 18 18 7 - 111 pts

Men's 470 (64 boats)

1st: Kevin Peponnet / Jeremie Mion (FRA) 11 11 3 1 9 2 3 (24) 3 7 6 - 56 pts

2nd: Tetsuya Isozaki / Akira Takayanagi (JPN) 5 6 2 7 1 (25) 16 10 1 2 10 - 60 pts

3rd: Jordi Xammar Hernandez / Nicolas Rodriguez Garcia-Paz (ESP) 2 5 4 (18) 8 3 6 11 16 3 4 - 62

12th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) (25) 5 7 3 14 11 23 4 STP 15 12 - 94 pts

Women's 470 (47 boats)

1st: Ai Kondo Yoshida / Miho Yoshioka (JPN) (12) 1 3 6 2 5 6 - 23 pts

2nd: Camille Lecointre / Aloise Retornaz (FRA) 2 6 4 7 8 (36) 1 - 28 pts

3rd: Hannah Mills / Eilidh McIntyre (BGR) 9 14 1 1 5 3 (18) - 33 pts

35th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds Smith (NZL) (40) 39 34 26 34 19 24 - 175 pts

Nacra 17 (68 boats)

1st: Nathan Ooutteridge / Haylee Ooutteridge (AUS) 5 5 (13) 5 8 3 7 1 3 5 - 42 pts

2nd: Lin Ea Cenholt / Christian Peter Lubeck (DEN) 7 5 6 7 1 2 10 5 (21) 3 - 46 pts

3rd: Santiago Lange / Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG) 3 2 2 2 3 6 4 11 (35 UFD) 13 - 46 pts

14th: Gemma Jones Jason Saunders (NZL) (35 DNF) 35 DNF 11 3 7 15 3 7 14 1 - 96 pts

15th: Olivia Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 4 7 (26) 6 8 21 18 23 14 - 104 pts

Men's RS:X (76 boards)

1st: Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED) 2 1 (14) 1 5 8 5 5 7 - 34 pts

2nd: Pawel Tarnowski (POL) 5 2 3 3 (26) 1 15 3 12 - 44 pts

3rd: Kieran Holmes Martin (GBR) 8 (12) 6 6 1 1 12 7 4 - 45 pts

58th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) 23 26 31 21 30 (34) 19 15 6 - 174 pts

Women's RS:X (62 boards)

1st: Lilian de Geus (NED) 4 3 5 2 6 3 (31) 1 6 - 30 pts

2nd: Yunxiu Lu (CHN) (17) 1 4 1 1 7 (24) 3 1 - 35 pts

3rd: Zofia Noceti- Klepacka (POL) 1 5.2 RDG 3 4 10 8 7 (14) 7 - 45.2 pts

55th: Veerle ten Have (NZL) 9 24 (29) 29 29 29 25 25 24 - 194 pts

Men's formula kite (61 boards)

1st: Nicolas Parlier (FRA) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (11) 1 2 (23 DCT) 1 3 8 1 6 - 29 pts

2nd: Guy Bridge (GBR) (2) (12) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 DNC 4 3 - 29 pts

3rd: Oliver Bridge (GBR) 1 (5) 2 2 1 2 1 1 (6) 1 1 1 1 7 2 8 - 31 pts

18th: Sam Bullock (NZL) 6 5 5 7 6 6 (23 DNC) 6 (11) 10 3 5 7 8 7 9 - 90 pts

Full results here.

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Yachting New Zealand