Yachting: 'Calm' hopes over selections

By JULIE ASH




Yachting New Zealand hopes it is not heading for another messy legal wrangle with its latest Olympic nominations.

Shelley Hesson and Linda Dickson have been forwarded in the women's 470 class instead of trial winners Jan Shearer and Melinda Henshaw.

Shearer and Henshaw won YNZ's Olympic trials in January, but the selectors wanted them to prove they were capable of a top-10 Athens finish by competing at the world championships in Spain.

But Henshaw, 11th in the class with Jenny Egnot in the 2000 Olympics, and Shearer, a silver medallist with Egnot in the 1996 Games, finished 41st.

Hesson and Dickson were 15th.

"It is just a case of who won the trial and have they met the overall criteria of being top-10 capable or not," YNZ chief executive Simon Wickham said.

"If not, then they [selectors] can look at the second placegetter and that is what they have done here."

He said Henshaw and Shearer were obviously disappointed with the outcome. "They tried their hardest to convince the selectors.

"I am not sure if they will take it any further. Every sailor has the right to appeal. Whether they have got grounds for an appeal is up to the [New Zealand Sports Disputes] tribunal to decide but we'll just have to wait and see."

Yachting New Zealand has already appeared before the tribunal and the Court of Arbitration for Sport this year in relation to its selection policy. Shearer and Henshaw were two of five sailors who went to the tribunal.

"We are very confident in the selectors' decisions and confident the policy has delivered us a good team for Athens," Wickham said.

Henshaw and Shearer could not be reached for comment last night.

Also nominated yesterday were Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker in the Finn and Yngling sailors Sharon Ferris, Kylie Jameson and Joanna White.

Barker, who returned to the Finn only late last year, edged out Clifton Webb and Peter Fox after finishing 12th in the world championships and fourth in the European champs.

"To get fourth in the Finn Europeans in what was a world-class field is an awesome result for Dean and I think speaks wonders about the calibre of the guy as a sailor," Wickham said.

Ferris and her crew earned their nomination after they finished 10th at the world championships.


THE TEAM

Barbara Kendall, Thomas Ashley (Mistral); Hamish Pepper (Laser); Sarah Macky (Europe); Andrew Brown, Jamie Hunt (470); Shelley Hesson, Linda Dickson (470); Dean Barker (Finn); Sharon Ferris, Kylie Jameson, Joanna White (Yngling)