Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie have come agonisingly close to a second medal in as many European regattas, but the 49er duo still return to New Zealand with plenty of gains.
McHardie and McKenzie last night finished fourth in a tightly contested 49er medal race to end the French Olympic Week in Hyères in sixth overall – four points off third place.
Spanish duo Diego Botin and Florian Trittel had all but secured gold after a dominant finals series, but the young Kiwi team could still add silverware to the bronze they claimed at the season-opening Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma de Mallorca three weeks ago with a strong result in the double-points finale – and a bit of luck.
While they managed the former, the latter eluded them.
“We knew points were close and we were well within reach of second place,” McKenzie says.
“The plan for the medal race was to go out and push as hard as we could…and just hope that the boats behind us finished in an order that suited us.
“We felt like we had a good race – finishing fourth – but unfortunately, the guys we needed to beat were either just in front of us or just behind us.”
Teammates Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn, who won gold in Spain for a Kiwi 1-3, last night finished ninth overall with an eighth place in the 10-boat medal race.
The two crews spent much of the New Zealand summer training together – focusing on boat speed – and McKenzie feels their collective hard work has paid off.
“We consider this European block to have been a success – we got a third in Palma and a sixth place here and we were in the medal hunt in both. That’s all we could ask for,” McKenzie says.
“Logan and Oscar also had strong performances and put up a good fight in the medal race but we’re happy to have just pipped them today.”
Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson were the only other Kiwi team in action last night, finishing 10th in the Nacra 17 medal race for a top-10 placing overall.
Tom Saunders (11th) and George Gautrey (14th) couldn’t qualify for the medal race in the ILCA 7 (Laser) class, won by Britain’s Elliot Hanson after a tense tussle with teammate and Palma gold medallist Michael Beckett.
New Zealand’s two Olympic 49er FX hopefuls also missed out on gold-fleet racing after struggling in the extreme conditions on the Mediterranean coast.
National champions Alex Maloney and Olivia Hobbs finished 29th overall, while Jo Aleh and Molly Meech were 34th.
Most of the 27-strong Kiwi contingent will now return to New Zealand after a successful start to the European season that saw the team also claim silver and a second bronze at the Princess Sofia Regatta.
“We’ll have six weeks at home now to recover and work on a few things before our next regattas,” McKenzie says.
“Our speed is feeling good and we’re racing well – now we just have to keep on improving and try to lower our average score by a few points by keeping that consistency up.”
Photography: Sailing Energy