Sailing: Maloney and Meech to fight for medal

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech will race to claim gold at the Kiel Week regatta. Photo / segel-bilder.de

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech look set to finish on the podium at the Kiel Week regatta tonight (NZT) but it's just a matter of what colour their medal will be.

The Olympic silver medallists are second ahead of tonight's double points medal race, seven points behind the British combination of Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey.

They had gone into the day with an eight-point lead but struggled in the strong westerly winds, even capsizing on one downwind leg, but still have a chance of winning the regatta. They need to finish four places ahead of Dobson and Tidey to secure gold.

"The gusts were quite dense and made for some exciting racing," Maloney said. "We were also required to do a lot of course management with fleets and keel boats going across the course.

"We made a few mistakes starting and also had a capsize sailing downwind, so there were a few things that were quite costly.

"We haven't raced in that much breeze for a long time and found ourselves in some new situations, too. There's always something new to learn in our sport. Overall, it was a tough day at the office for our team but our office is pretty good. Tomorrow is a new day and we are looking forward to sending it in the medal race."

Strong westerly winds are again forecast and the Brits showed great speed in the stronger winds, collecting a win and a second place. Maloney and Meech were 10th and eighth in the two races and hold an 11-point buffer over Germans Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke in third.

Fellow Kiwis Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey ended their regatta on a disappointing note. The pair led the 49er fleet for the first two days and were fifth overall heading into racing overnight but came unstuck in the tough conditions.

They were eighth in the day's opening race before picking up a disqualification in the second and a 29th in the last to slip to 13th overall. It means they will miss tonight's top-10 medal race.

Australians duo David Gilmour and Joel Turner have pretty much wrapped up the 49er gold medal, and will go into the medal race with a 20-point buffer over the Polish team of Lukasz Przybytek and Pawel Kolodzinski.

Paralympian Andrew May, who was part of the Kiwi Gold crew who competed in Rio, had a much better day, climbing four places to 12th overall in the 2.4mR Para World Sailing Championship after recording a 16th and two sevenths overnight. He is 15 points off the top 10 with two more races remaining.

Kiel Week is one of the biggest regattas outside of world and European championships and, apart from those involved in Bermuda with the America's Cup, most of the world's top sailors are in Germany.

New Zealand results and standings at the Kiel Week regatta in Germany overnight (NZT):

49erFX (48 boats)

1st: Charlotte Dobson / Saskia Tidey (GBR) (16) 4 5 1 3 11 4 1 5 5 1 2 - 32 points

2nd: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 4 1 (17) 3 11 2 1 2 1 6 10 8 - 49 points

3rd: Tina Lutz / Sasann Beucke (GER) 1 5 16 3 3 2 6 4 9 8 (20) 3 - 60 points

49er (69 boats)

1st: David Gilmour / Joel Turner (AUS) 1 4 3 1 (20) 2 5 4 7 6 5 5 - 43 points

2nd: Łukasz Przybytek / Paweł Kołodziński (POL) 5 7 2 3 10 6 3 (21) 1 5 11 10 - 63 points

3rd: Will Phillips and Sam Phillips (AUS) 2 25 12 6 (36) 1 1 1 6 2 10 3 - 69 points

13th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 4 1 1 10 3 18 21 11 9 8 (36 - DSQ) 29 - 114 points

2.4mR Para World Sailing Championship (41 boats)

12th: Andrew May (NZL) 17 (18) 13 12 17 16 7 7 - 89 points