The Kiwi pair of Alex Maloney and Molly Meech were left rueing a penalty before the World Cup final in Santander that cost them a chance of a medal.
The Olympic 49erFX silver medallists finished third in the double-points medal race overnight (NZT) but it wasn't enough to move them up from fifth overall. Maloney and Meech needed to win the medal race and hope other results went their way to claim bronze.
That opportunity seemed unlikely after their boat, colloquially named Lola, was deemed to be underweight when measured prior to the regatta. It meant they were loaded with a 50 percent penalty on the first three races, leaving them in 13th after the first day in the 15-boat fleet at the invitation-only event.
They recovered well, posting top-three finishes in their last six races and also picked up two wins across the 13 races. But they had given up too much of a gap and were left to think about what might have been.
"The week was really challenging for Molly and I," Maloney said. "We made plenty of mistakes during the event but also did a lot of things right.
