Matt Brown talks to sailors Andy Maloney and Josh Junior as they await the decision over which of them will be announced as the Finn class sailor for Tokyo, and who will take on the position of coach.
It's possibly the most difficult selection for any sport New Zealanders are competing in at the Tokyo Olympics.
Yachting New Zealand has chosen their athlete who will contest sailing's Finn Class, with the NZOC to announce the decision tomorrow morning. Best mates Josh Junior and Andy Maloney are vying forthe nod, and could both make strong cases, but only one will chase gold with the other accompanying him to Tokyo as coach.
The Herald chatted to the pair from their base in Porto on the eve of the announcement and while they've been told who is going in each role, they're keeping tight-lipped as to who got the nod.
The situation is complicated because Junior won the 2019 Finn Gold Cup (World Championships) while Maloney finished sixth, and at that stage Junior was odds-on to win the nomination to compete in Tokyo. But that was before the Olympics were postponed a year.
After more than a year of not competing in the class while they were part of Team New Zealand's America's Cup defence, this year's Finn Gold Cup held early this month in Portugal suddenly became important.
If Junior finished ahead of Maloney it would have made it easy for the selectors. But despite very limited preparation both sailors produced incredible results. Maloney sailed with great consistency to win the regatta with Junior joining him on the podium in third.
Adding the two most recent world championship results, Junior's first and third betters Maloney's first and sixth. But should the most recent regatta carry more weight than the 2019 one? Maloney and Junior both say they are comfortable with the decision that has been reached.
"Josh and I from the start of the campaign were heavily involved in setting out what we thought would be the best way to decide between us who was going." Maloney said. "We knew it was going to be close from the moment we crossed the finish line at the worlds. Between us we had a good inkling of what was going to happen, so it's not too nerve-wracking, it's pretty much sunk in for both of us and we just excited for it to be announced to the public."
Josh Junior and Andy Maloney were teammates at Team New Zealand. Photo / Photosport
Junior says tomorrow morning's announcement really the start of the final stage of their campaign.
"We have been working incredibly closely as sailors for the past three or four years and that role will slightly change which is actually quite exciting. It's something that one of us will end up more of in a coaching role and the other will be the sailor trying to do the business, it's just the next phase and we're really looking forward to it."
As for their preparation for Enoshima, the sailing venue near Tokyo, Maloney and Junior think it couldn't have gone better considering they are in a Covid-19 affected environment.
"In the current environment it has been as ideal as we could plan for in having all our gear over here [Portugal] and having Josh and I here to push each other each day, we have got some big gains to be made still before the Olympics and we've got a great set-up here to do that, so we're both really excited for the next phase of it," Maloney said.
Junior and Maloney are both part of the New Zealand Sail GP team that debuted in Bermuda last month. They will step up to lead the team next week in Taranto in Italy for round two of the series in the absence of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke who are in MIQ in Auckland ahead of the final phase of their Olympic 49er preparations.
For Junior Sail GP has been a steep learning curve but he's excited to get back into the foiling catamarans next week.
"Andy and I are extremely excited to take on more of a leadership row in Taranto and improve from where we got to in Bermuda [fifth out of eight teams]. It was definitely a bit of a shock, we sort of jumped in and a few things didn't go our way and we battled through it and learned a lot but we're really looking forward to getting there again and continuing to improve, so it's going to be fun."
After next weekend Maloney and Junior will switch back to the Finn class through until the Olympics and will miss July's third round of Sail GP in Plymouth.
"We're going to miss the Plymouth event like Peter and Blair but luckily we've got some new guys who have joined the team and hopefully they can build up during this event [Taranto] and then really take it on for the next one, so we're excited to have them involved and I think they will do a great job."
