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Hot favourites in the 49er Class, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke’s Silver was New Zealand’s only sailing medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Sailing Energy / World Sailing Photo.

Hard lessons from Covid Games

By Ivor Wilkins Just under half of New Zealand’s record 20-strong medal haul at the Tokyo Olympic Games came from watersports, primarily rowing with three golds and two silvers, and kayaking with three golds. Sailing’s contribution, however, was confined to a single silver medal.

The customary review that will follow the Tokyo result will reflect on why an experienced group (only the Nacra pair were making their Olympic debut) produced the worst sailing result since 2004 in Greece when sailing produced no medals at all; Barbara Kendall, competing in her fourth of five Olympic appearances, produced the best sailing result at Athens with a 5th place in boardsailing.

“We will be doing a debrief with our athletes, our coaches and our management team,” said Yachting New Zealand CEO David Abercrombie, who acknowledged there was no hiding from the disappointing result. “We will debrief properly and try to determine where the gaps were and where we need to step up.”

“Our sailors had prepared well, despite the challenges brought about by Covid, and came in with high expectations,” added YNZ High Performance Director Ian Stewart.

“We saw some clinical performances in classes and our sailors had their moments. However, inconsistencies cost points and our team will naturally go home with the feeling of what might have been.”

Yachting commentator Peter Lester, who attended the Games in Tokyo, said New Zealand’s traditional weakness in light air sailing was evident once again at Enoshima, but a failure to capitalise when the breeze was up proved costly.

He also questioned whether leaping into the SailGP circuit straight after the America’s Cup impacted the results of Burling and Tuke in the 49er and Josh Junior in the Finn.

“Nobody admires the talents of Burling and Tuke more than I do,” said Lester, “but some poor starts and Burling falling off the boat in Race Five point to uncharacteristic mistakes that suggest not enough time on the boat.”

Burling and Tuke were the defending Olympic champions and reigning world champions, but came away with the silver medal after a tight battle in the final medal race.

“A question for the debrief is what impact did SailGP have on their preparation. I would say it was considerable,” said Lester.

Josh Junior’s 5th place result in the Finn was two better than his 7th at the 2016 Rio Games, but well below expectation. Following the unprecedented Finn Gold Cup performance in Portugal earlier this year – when Andy Maloney won the title and Junior was 3rd – New Zealand came into the class’s Olympic

swansong at Tokyo heavily favoured as a medal contender.

The only other class to improve its Rio result was the men’s 470. Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox finished 10th in 2016 and, with a consistent performance throughout the regatta, progressed to 4th in Tokyo, which also marked the last Olympics for the class in its current form (it will feature mixed gender crews in 2024).

Sam Meech, Laser bronze medallist at Rio, never found his mojo in Japan and finished 10th, while Alex Maloney and Molly Meech in the 49erFX fared worse, dropping from the silver medal slot in Rio to 12th at Tokyo.

The young Nacra pairing of Micah Wilkinson and Olivia Dawson struck bad luck when Olivia fractured her fibula in training shortly before the Games and did well to recover in time to compete. They were also 12th.

Although thorough reviews and debriefs will follow – not to mention the pressing matter of arguing to retain its current Tier 1 funding status with High Performance Sport NZ – Yachting New Zealand will be keen to quickly shift attention to the Paris Olympics. With the Covid disruptions to the calendar, the next Games cycle is reduced to just three years.

“We always conduct thorough reviews,” said Ian Stewart, “but now we need to make sure we grow with the key lessons as we turn our full attention to the Paris Olympics.”

Talking of Paris, Stewart is confident that 2024 will see a reverse of the astonishing collapse of boardsailing, which in the past provided New Zealand sailing’s most prolific Olympic medal haul (seven), but had no Kiwi representation at Rio 2016 or Tokyo 2020.

In 2024, Paris sees the introduction of two board sailing disciplines with foiling kiteboards and Windfoilers.

“There is definitely an exciting new generation coming through,” said Stewart. “The introduction of foiling has transformed the scene overnight and the Windfoilers are now our largest and most active Olympic class.

“There is a very strong class association led by some of the legends of the earlier windsurfing era and we have very strong prospects in both men and women. Next year, the European championships will be held at the Olympic venue in Marseilles. That will attract a world class fleet and provide our guys with their first check-in to see how they are placed.” Megan Kensington and her Tokyo Olympics RS:X finish boat team.

By Debra Douglas Despite an involvement with sailing as a youngster, going on to crew on competitive keel boats and then ‘marrying’ into sailing, Squadron Race Management volunteer Megan Kensington is first to admit she is a more experienced race officer than a sailor. However, she thinks of herself as a bit of an “accidental” race officer.

“My husband John was doing a lot of MRX racing and I went out on the water to take photos. Peter Carr, who was Race Management Chairman, encouraged me to help run races and become a national race officer.”

In 2008, after more encouragement from the umpire and race officer teams, Megan earned her certification as an International Race Officer. She is now one of four New Zealanders with this qualification.

The skills she has learned have led to adjudication at high profile events such as the Volvo Ocean Race, the 2003 America’s Cup and the 49er Worlds. And this year it was the Tokyo Olympics where she was an International Technical Officer (ITO) at the RS:X events (Olympic Boardsailing class).

Megan: “The local country always runs its Olympic events, so there were Japanese Race Officers (ROs) across all the sailing courses at Enoshima. Each course, however, had three ITOs officiating on the start boat, pin boat and finish boat. My team on the finish boat included six Japanese, three of whom spoke some English. There were no Kiwis in the RS:X events – organisers try to avoid any conflict of interest.

“It was a fantastic experience to be part of the Olympics, to see the amount of work that goes in to ensuring the competition is fair and run to a high level and to work with international ROs with a lot more experience than me. The Japanese people, despite the language barrier, were great to work with; they were very well organised.

“And then there was the COVID situation, which made everything so much tougher. The heat, the face masks, the restrictions, all were challenging. We were closely monitored every day with salvia tests and temperature checks. We obviously couldn’t go sightseeing on our days off, so I went back out on the water as an observer. And the minute the racing was finished, we were shipped out.”

For Megan that then meant two weeks in MIQ at the Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland.

Again, she says that was a well organised experience. The food was good, the staff were caring and she had work to do, as a managing partner at ACIEM, which provides management, scientific and technical services.

An avid reader, she also made good use of her Kindle. The only problem was the day she was released from MIQ, Auckland was plunged into Level 4 lockdown!

“The first thing I did when I got home, after four weeks away, was to hug my dog and my husband, enjoy a simple salad and get my life back to normal (albeit lockdown normal).”

For Megan “normal” will include running local, national and hopefully international sailing events at the RNZYS with the volunteer teams.

“Becoming a volunteer can lead to being part of some exciting events, but the best thing about becoming a volunteer is the friendships you make and the camaraderie.

“People ask me why I stick at it. I just enjoy getting things right and learning. It’s about those people you are working with, bringing the new ones on, seeing them flourish and listening to their stories. As well as the desire to want to improve all the time. “