Wave of medals sweeps sailors to top

Northland sailors were no strangers of the podium at the 2011 Sail Auckland Regatta.
With 12 Olympic or invited classes all rolled into one regatta, there was plenty of action in the Hauraki Gulf off Takapuna in the four-day event, with three Northland sailors - Andrew Murdoch, Marcus Hansen and Michael Cate - in the medals on Sunday.
Hansen and crewmate Aaron Hume-Merry were too good for a smallish field in the 49er class. They won all of their races, bar one DNF, making a clean sweep of winning 15 races from 16 starts. Chris Burgess and Rowan Swanson were second.
"Unfortunately we didn't have the top-rated 49er crew of Blair Tuke and Peter Burling there, because they were in Australia training but we were still pretty happy with how we went obviously," Hansen said.
The Whangarei sailor said it was still satisfying to get off the boat knowing they had won at the country's biggest regatta.
They would now start preparing for nationals in April and an expected showdown with Tuke and Burling.
Murdoch once again showed his ability to hold off a gaggle of top Kiwi Laser sailors to win the prestigious title. Mike Bullot and Murdoch went head to head again yesterday with the Kerikeri sailor getting the upper hand in the final race of the series, clawing back a point on Bullot in the standings.
Going into the medal race just one point separated the two NZL team sailors meaning that for each, getting home before the other would almost certainly secure the title.
Another hot prospect Josh Junior took the win in the medal race, but it was Murdoch - New Zealand's 2008 Olympic representative, and the recently crowned 2011 national champion that snuck home in seventh in front of Bullot in ninth to take the win at Sail Auckland and the domestic double crown. Australia was well represented in the Laser medal race with four sailors competing with one medal going their way with Tom Burton securing the bronze.
Just a week after finishing second in the Laser Radial Class to Jo Aleh, Cate again had to be satisfied with second place behind another Olympic campaigner Sara Winther. The Radial fleet was the largest at the regatta and Cate led the standings after day one and day two but Winther fought back over the two final days to complete the event in first place after trailing Cate at last week's nationals.
In other events Tom Ashley again held off Jon-Paul Tobin to top the podium in the Men's RS:X. Ashley was second home in yesterday's medal race behind Dorian van Rijsselberge who secured the silver medal. Tobin claimed the bronze medal on equal points with Antonio Cozzolino, but coming off better on count-back.
Kate Ellingham from the NZL sailing team was the winner in the women's fleet.
Double UK Olympic medallist Nick Rogers, sailing with Chris Grube, was simply too good for the Kiwis on the 470 course. Dan Slater took out the Finn class, applying local knowledge to beat Rafael Trujillo of Spain who took silver.