Yachting: Bows point to Athens Olympics

By JULIE ASH


Twenty-one-year-old Andrew Murdoch claims he has come across "bigger and badder sailors overseas" and is not fazed at taking on seasoned campaigners in his quest for an Olympics spot.

The first day of New Zealand's Olympic yachting trials took place in perfect conditions off Torbay yesterday.

New Zealand have qualified in seven out of a possible 11 classes, but only board sailor Barbara Kendall has secured an individual nomination by finishing within the top five at last year's world championships.

Trials are being held over the next week to decide who will represent New Zealand in five of the classes. The Finn representative will be determined after a series of international regattas.

One of the most hotly-contested classes is the Laser, which is more or less divided into old and new schools.

In one corner are seasoned sailors Hamish Pepper and Dan Slater, formerly of Team New Zealand, and Nik Burfoot and Rod Dawson, while in the other are up-and-comers Murdoch, Michael Bullot and David Weaver.

Yesterday both schools claimed a victory.

Murdoch led race one from go to whoa, finishing first ahead of Pepper and Bullot.

In race two, Murdoch and Pepper set the pace early on, but Slater claimed the win ahead of Burfoot and Pepper after capitalising on a reasonably strong right-hand breeze on the last beat.

For Murdoch, who finished seventh at the world champs last year, a first and fourth were a pretty satisfying start to the regatta.

"It would have been good to have got two bullets, but I'll take a first and a fourth," he said.

With so much at stake, Murdoch admits the trials are a fairly nerve-racking ordeal.

And as for coming up against experienced sailors such as Pepper and Slater? "I have no worries about that," he said.

For Slater the trials are like a flashback to 1996 where Pepper edged him for the Olympic berth.

"Going down the last run [in the second race] when there was Nik, Hamish and myself, I sort of thought, 'I've seen this movie before'," Slater said.

"Whoever comes out of this is going to be sailing pretty well and is going to have a great shot at getting a medal. It is just unfortunate only one person can go."

In the men's mistral class, David Robertson caused the upset of the day, winning race one ahead of favourites Tom Ashley, James Wells and Jon-Paul Tobin.

But the big guns came back in the second race, with Wells securing the win ahead of Tobin and Ashley.

In the men's 470 class, Christchurch's Keen brothers, Stephen and Phillip, claimed first blood in shifty conditions, edging out Simon Cooke and Alistair Gair and Andrew Brown and Jamie Hunt.

Brown and Hunt came back to win the second race.

In the women's 470 class, Melinda Henshaw and Jan Shearer, who are racing with the men, finished ahead of Shelly Hesson and Linda Dickson in both races.

Sarah Macky had no trouble winning both her races in the Europe class.