Kiwi sailing stars Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have underlined their class in the 49er skiff, moving into pole position to defend their Olympic title.
Tied for the lead heading into the final three of 12 qualifying races, the Kiwis wound into gear on Tokyo Bay on Saturday with a fifth, second and 11th to finish with a four-point lead over Great Britain and Spain.
With only the double-points medal race to come, on Monday, the Kiwis hold their fate in their own hands and just need to make sure they finish above or close enough to their nearest rivals to protect their slender lead.
If they can, theyd become back-to-back Olympic champions in the 49er, having also won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics regatta in Weymouth, England.
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The penultimate race was the key; Burling and Tuke were run down by Poland but a second placing saw them go from one point behind to eight points ahead of Great Britain.
The Brits and Spain halved that gap in the last race, and with 56 points are poised to pounce should the Kiwis, on 52 points, slip up. There is a decent gap back to Denmark and Germany, tied for fourth on 66 points.
Crews get points based on their placing in each race, and the crew with the lowest total wins. The top 10 crews qualify for the medal race, which is worth double points, so there is room for significant movement in the standings.
“We are definitely a little frustrated with that last race but, nonetheless, we still gained four points on everyone around us today and it’s a massive honour putting on that gold bib for the first time going into that medal race,” Burling said.
“We are really excited to have another opportunity to win another gold medal for our country.
“It definitely feels like a few things haven’t rolled our way this week but we have been battling back and getting ourselves in the hunt. It’s been a really fun battle this week and we’re just excited to round it out with one more good race.”
The news is not so good for the womens 49erFX skiff, with 2016 silver medallists Molly Meech and Alex Maloney failing to qualify for the top-10 medal race.
They finished the regatta in 12th, and will rue a disqualification in race two, as well as a costly 20th in the penultimate race on Saturday, which was bookended by a pair of sixths.
Josh Junior on the water in the men’s Finn class on Saturday.
But Josh Junior made a huge move in the Finn, winning race seven the first race win for any Kiwi crew in the regatta and backing up with a fourth in race eight to move up to fifth position overall. With two races before the top-10 medal race, he is on 38 points, nine off bronze medal position.
The Nacra mixed multihull crew of Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson struggled to make headway in their three races, finishing 15th, ninth and 18th to be 12th overall with three qualification races remaining.
SATURDAY RESULTS
49er (Peter Burling and Blair Tuke): 5th in race 10, 2nd in race 11, 11th in race 12 (1st overall, medal race remaining)
49erFX (Alex Maloney and Molly Meech): 6th in race 10, 20th in race 11, 6th in race 12 (finished 12th overall)
Finn (Josh Junior): 1st in race 7, 4th in race 8 (5th overall, two races + medal race remaining)
Nacra 17 (Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson): 15th in race 7, 9th in race 8, 18th in race 9 (three races + medal race remaining)
