Sailing: NZ 49er crews in the mix at world champs

Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn won their first race of the day in the 49er fleet. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing.

Logan Dunning Beck had an uneasy feeling when he heard the foreboding music playing nearby that it was a sign they were about to have a bad day at the sailing world championships in Aarhus. He needn't have worried.

Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn, who started the day as joint leaders in the 49er, won their first race and backed it up with another top-10 finish to leave them second overall after two days.

Fellow Kiwis Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey are only two points further behind in third, after a third and a fourth in their two races.

Sam Meech proved he was human when he was 13th in his first race - he had opened his account with three wins and a second - but backed it up with a fourth. He still leads the Laser fleet with three more days of his competition remaining but has a rest day tomorrow.

It's not unfamiliar to see a New Zealand boat in contention in the 49er at the world championships, with Peter Burling and Blair Tuke collecting four consecutive titles between 2013 and 2016.

There's a widespread assumption the pair will pick up where they left off when they jump back in the boat soon to kickstart their campaign for the Tokyo Olympics - and they are so talented it's highly likely - but there are three other New Zealand crews who have been performing well on the world stage.

Dunning Beck and Gunn were second at the World Cup event in Hyeres earlier this year and showed they are quick at these world championships when they won their first race despite a mishap.

"We came out of a tack in the second leg and I missed the trapeze wire and went for a bit of a swim," Gunn said. "We didn't capsize and only lost about 20m.

"It was pretty cool [to wear the yellow bib today]. It's always good to be out in front, especially at the worlds which is the biggest event of the year. We are just enjoying it."

Meech experienced little joy today after dominating the fleet in the first two days of his racing but is still in pole position. He fought his way back from a poor start in his first race to finish 13th, his discard so far, and was fourth in the next.

"That was a real battle," he said of the first race. "I was pretty far back in the fleet and just didn't really seem to get anything right.

"I was really hoping today was going to be a little easier with the breeze being up a bit, especially in qualifying. It's nice to get away without any bad races but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Hopefully other people would have had difficult races as well."

He's now being chased by three Australians – with Luke Elliott and Matt Wearn four points behind and Olympic champion Tom Burton two points further back – and the other main rivals are lurking not far behind.

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders had a disastrous day when a pin on their centreboard case broke, causing one of their foils to pop out.

It meant the pair, who came in as contenders in the Nacra 17, failed to finish their first two races. A repair survived the demanding conditions enough in their final race to finish 11th but it was a bitterly disappointing outcome for a combination who have achieved good success this year.

Former world champions Alex Maloney and Molly Meech have failed to stamp their class on the event as yet, and are ninth overall after two days of 49erFX action, but there were some encouraging results in the boards.

Youngster Veerle ten Have, who last month won silver at the youth sailing world championships, is 16th after the first day of the women's RS:X and Sam Bullock is 12th in the men's formula kite.

The Finns and 470s return to action tonight (NZ time) when they start gold fleet racing, with Josh Junior the best placed of the New Zealanders in seventh in the heavyweight dinghy.

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

Laser (165 boats)
1st: Sam Meech (NZL) 1 1 1 2 (13) 4 - 9 points
2nd: Luke Elliott (AUS) (13) 1 2 6 3 1 - 13 pts
3rd: Matthew Wearn (AUS) (7) 4 1 4 3 1 - 13 pts
17th: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 6 4 (31) 17 5 12 - 44 pts
25th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 6 11 (21) 10 21 2 - 50 pts
36th: George Gautrey (NZL) 18 14 8 17 (21) 8 - 65 pts
101st: Matthew Kempkers (NZL) 40 12 45 (46) 22 33 - 152 pts

Laser Radial (119 boats)
1st: Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) 4 3 2 (18) 2 2 - 13 pts
2nd: Line Flem Host (NOR) 3 2 5 (27) 1 9 - 20 pts
3rd: Paige Railey (USA) 2 1 (16) 5 7 7 - 22 pts
42nd: Olivia Christie (NZL) 28 48 (51) 3 12 8 - 99 pts
45th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 31 18 (41) 10 12 29 - 100 pts
101st: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) (58) 57 54 20 42 50 - 223 pts

Finn (90 boats)
1st: Edward Wright (GBR) 12 (13) 1 5 2 2 - 22 pts
2nd: Max Salminen (SWE) 3 4 (16) 10 4 1 - 22 pts
3rd: Nicholas Heiner (NED) 6 7 5 3 (9) 1 - 22 pts
7th: Josh Junior (NZL) (25) 3 8 4 8 3 - 26 pts
15th: Andy Maloney (NZL) 6 (13) 5 5 11 13 - 40 pts

49er (86 boats)
1st: Lucas Rual / Emile Amoros (FRA) 2 1 (6) 3 3 - 9 pts
2nd: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 8 2 1 1 (9) - 12 pts
3rd: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 4 3 (25) 3 4 - 14 pts
21st: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 7 (18) 14 5 7 - 33 pts

49erFX (60 boats)
1st: Ida Marie Baad Nielsen / Marie Thusgaard Olsen (DEN) 1 (16) 3 3 4 - 11 pts
2nd: Charlotte Dobson / Saskia Tidey (GBR) 8 (16) 2 2 1 - 13 pts
3rd: Jena Hansen / Katja Salskov-Iversen (DEN) 1 (18) 1 7 6 - 15 pts
9th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 5 (13) 6 6 11 - 28 pts

Men's 470 (64 boats)
1st: Anton Dahlberg / Fredrik Bergstrom (SWE) 1 3 (6) 5 5 1 - 15 pts
2nd: Keiju Okada / Jumpei Hokazono (JPN) (10) 6 2 4 2 6 - 20 pts
3rd: Tetsuya Isozaki / Akira Takayanagi (JPN) 5 6 2 7 1 (25) - 21 pts
14th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) (25) 5 7 3 14 11 - 40 pts

Women's 470 (47 boats)
1st: Ai Kondo Yoshida / Miho Yoshioka (JPN) (12) 1 3 6 2 5 - 17 pts
2nd: Hannah Mills / Eilidh McIntyre (BGR) 9 (14) 1 1 5 3 - 19 pts
3rd: Camille Lecointre / Aloise Retornaz (FRA) 2 6 4 7 8 (36) - 27 pts
35th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds Smith (NZL) (40) 39 34 26 34 19 - 151 pts

Nacra 17 (68 boats)
1st: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Marianna Banti (ITA) (1) 1 1 - 2 pts
2nd: Thomas Zajac / Barbara Matz (AUT) 2 (7) 3 - 5 pts
3rd: Vittorio Bissaro / Maelle Fraxcari (ITA) (3) 2 2 - 4 pts
12th: Olivia Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 4 7 (26) - 11 pts
51st: Gemma Jones Jason Saunders (NZL) (35 DNF) 35 DNF 11 - 46 pts

Men's RS:X (76 boards)
1st: Louis Giard (FRA) 1 (7) 1 - 2 pts
2nd: Daniele Benedetti (ITA) 1 1 (4) - 2 pts
3rd: Kiran Badloe (NED) 2 (11) 1 - 3 pts
57th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) 23 26 (31) - 49 pts

Women's RS:X (62 boards)
1st: Yunxiu Lu (CHN) (17) 2 1 - 3 pts
2nd: Maja Dziarnowska (POL) 2 1 (6) - 3 pts
3rd: Zofia Noceti- Klepacka (POL) 1 4 (9) - 5 pts
16th: Veerle then Have (NZL) 9 5 (24) - 14 pts

Men's formula kite (61 boards)
1st: Nicolas Parlier (FRA) (1) 1 1 1 1 1 - 5 pts
2nd: Theo De Ramecourt (FRA) (2) 2 1 1 2 1 - 7 pts
3rd: Oliver Bridge (GBR) 1 (5) 2 2 1 2 - 8 pts
12th: Sam Bullock (NZL) 6 5 5 (7) 6 6 - 28 pts