Sailing: Josh Junior misses medal by narrowest of margins

Josh Junior. Photo Sailing Energy / World Sailing.

Josh Junior crossed the finish line and gave the thumbs-up but it didn't really mask his disappointment after missing out on a medal on countback at the sailing world championships in Aarhus.

The 28-year-old finished level on points with Pieter-Jan Postma but the Dutchman secured bronze by virtue of having finished ahead of Junior in the medal race.

It was a disappointing outcome for Junior, who led overall heading into yesterday's final race which was struck by a massive squall that caused chaos in the fleet. Junior was one of a handful to capsize and saw his lead evaporate in a barrage of wind and rain.

He still had a good chance of winning gold in today's top 10, double points medal race, but so did five others. Hungary's Zsombor Berecz won the race to snatch gold from Sweden's Max Salminen, with Junior crossing in fourth.

"It was always going to be a close one with six of us pretty much tied on points," he said.

"When it's like that, it takes a bit of luck. I sailed a good race to finish fourth but not enough to get a medal so I'm a bit gutted after the week."

Junior and fellow Kiwi Andy Maloney, who finished 10th in the medal race and 10th overall, have made significant progress since getting back in the Finn after helping Emirates Team New Zealand win the America's Cup.

"There have been some huge improvements since we got back in the boats," Junior said.

"Andy and I are working really closely together and we are making some big gains, especially in this light, shifty stuff that we didn't used to sail that well in. We can take that forward and keep improving."

Sam Meech had visions of contesting for a medal in tomorrow's Laser medal race and was fourth overall but was later disaqualified from today's only race (he was initially 22nd) after an incident with Great Britain's Elliot Hanson on the final downwind leg.

Meech was deemed to have not given Hanson enough room after establishing an overlap as the pair were engaged in a real dogfight. He's now slipped back to fifth overall and would need all the stars to align to snatch bronze given he is 15 points off third.

"I was trying to move forward in the fleet and he was really trying to hold me back pretty much the whole race," said Meech, who won his first three races in qualifying. "Not only was I back in the pack trying to catch up but I also had someone trying to stop me. It was a really difficult race.

"It's been a regatta of two halves for me. The first half I felt like I was getting it all right and the second half I feel like I haven't got anything right."

It hasn't gone to plan for Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, either, with the Olympic silver medallists struggling all week. But the pair have qualified ninth for the 49erFX medal race and done enough to also qualify the boat for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn lost some ground in the 49er and are now fifth after starting the day in second. Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie are only 10 points behind in sixth and added their second race win of the regatta today.

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders also won the last race of the day in the Nacra 17 and are now 14th with one more day before the medal race. The pair had a horror start to the regatta when a pin broke, causing one of their foils to pop out and putting them out of the first two races.

Strong wind gusts are forecast for tomorrow, which could disrupt racing, but disruptions have been par for the course this week in Aarhus.

Results and standings after the eighth day of the sailing world championships in Aarhus, Denmark, overnight (NZ time):

Laser (165 boats)
1st: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 8 3 7 2 1 2 12 4 2 (14) - 41 points
2nd: Matthew Wearn (AUS) 7 4 1 4 3 1 3 9 (14) 13 - 45 pts
3rd: Elliot Hanson (GBR) 7 9 11 1 2 2 6 13 9 (24) - 60 pts
5th: Sam Meech (NZL) 1 1 1 2 13 4 34 7 13 (56 DSQ) - 75 pts
14th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 6 11 21 10 21 2 (32) 2 18 31 - 121 pts
28th: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 6 4 31 17 5 12 37 (42) 21 - 153 pts
35th: George Gautrey (NZL) 18 14 8 17 21 8 26 32 (34) 15 - 159 pts
106th: Matthew Kempkers (NZL) 40 12 45 45 22 33 28 35 35 (46) - 296 pts

Laser Radial (119 boats)
1st: Emma Plasschaert (BEL) 5 7 1 (15) 9 3 11 7 11 2 - 56 pts
2nd: Paige Railey (USA) 2 1 16 5 7 7 4 (37) 20 3 - 65 pts
3rd: Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 3 2 11 (28) 16 4 14 11 1 - 67 pts
40th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 31 18 41 10 12 29 42 25 (54) 8 - 216 pts
56th: Olivia Christie (NZL) 28 48 51 3 12 8 43 (57) 35 53 - 281 pts
106th: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) (58) 57 54 20 42 50 47 52 15 40 - 377 pts

Finn (90 boats)
1st: Zsombor Berecz (HUN) 13 8 6 (15) 10 5 3 9 7 7 2 - 70 pts
2nd: Max Salminen (SWE) 3 4 16 10 4 1 (21) 8 13 1 14 - 74 pts
3rd: Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) 14 1 3 3 (19) 6 18 12 4 11 4 - 76 pts
4th: Josh Junior (NZL) (25) 3 8 4 8 3 12 7 8 15 8 - 76 pts
10th: Andy Maloney (NZL) 6 13 5 5 11 13 (24) 1 22 6 20 - 102 pts

49er (86 boats)
1st: Tim Fischer / Fabian Graf (GER) 10 11 1 5 4 3 6 5 (19) 5 - 50 pts
2nd: Sime Fantela / Mihovil Fantela (CRO) 6 8 3 1 (25) 15 11 1 4 2 - 51 pts
3rd: Erik Heil / Thomas Ploessel (GER) 5 16 4 11 1 8 3 (27) 9 4 - 61 pts
5th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 8 2 1 2 9 9 (20) 3 17 16 - 67 pts
6th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 7 18 14 5 7 1 15 8 1 (22) - 77 pts
12th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 4 3 (25) 3 4 19 18 9 6 20 - 86 pts

49erFX (60 boats)
1st: Tanja Frank / Lorena Abicht (AUT) 7 2 (25) 9 6 4 12 6 1 7 1 16 - 71 pts
2nd: Sophie Weguelin / Sophie Ainsworth (GBR) 13 7 9 8 (19) 8 15 3 2 1 4 12 - 82
3rd: Annemiek Bekkering / Annette Duetz (NED) 3 (26) 8 4 3 5 1 20 11 8 3 19 - 85 pts
9th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 5 13 6 6 11 4 (30) 19 4 18 18 7 - 111 pts

Men's 470 (64 boats)
1st: Kevin Peponnet / Jeremie Mion (FRA) 11 11 3 1 9 2 3 (24) 3 7 6 - 56 pts
2nd: Tetsuya Isozaki / Akira Takayanagi (JPN) 5 6 2 7 1 (25) 16 10 1 2 10 - 60 pts
3rd: Jordi Xammar Hernandez / Nicolas Rodriguez Garcia-Paz (ESP) 2 5 4 (18) 8 3 6 11 16 3 4 - 62
12th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) (25) 5 7 3 14 11 23 4 STP 15 12 - 94 pts

Women's 470 (47 boats)
1st: Ai Kondo Yoshida / Miho Yoshioka (JPN) (12) 1 3 6 2 5 6 - 23 pts
2nd: Camille Lecointre / Aloise Retornaz (FRA) 2 6 4 7 8 (36) 1 - 28 pts
3rd: Hannah Mills / Eilidh McIntyre (BGR) 9 14 1 1 5 3 (18) - 33 pts
35th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds Smith (NZL) (40) 39 34 26 34 19 24 - 175 pts

Nacra 17 (68 boats)
1st: Nathan Ooutteridge / Haylee Ooutteridge (AUS) 5 5 (13) 5 8 3 7 1 3 5 - 42 pts
2nd: Lin Ea Cenholt / Christian Peter Lubeck (DEN) 7 5 6 7 1 2 10 5 (21) 3 - 46 pts
3rd: Santiago Lange / Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG) 3 2 2 2 3 6 4 11 (35 UFD) 13 - 46 pts
14th: Gemma Jones Jason Saunders (NZL) (35 DNF) 35 DNF 11 3 7 15 3 7 14 1 - 96 pts
15th: Olivia Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 4 7 (26) 6 8 21 18 23 14 - 104 pts

Men's RS:X (76 boards)
1st: Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED) 2 1 (14) 1 5 8 5 5 7 - 34 pts
2nd: Pawel Tarnowski (POL) 5 2 3 3 (26) 1 15 3 12 - 44 pts
3rd: Kieran Holmes Martin (GBR) 8 (12) 6 6 1 1 12 7 4 - 45 pts
58th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) 23 26 31 21 30 (34) 19 15 6 - 174 pts

Women's RS:X (62 boards)
1st: Lilian de Geus (NED) 4 3 5 2 6 3 (31) 1 6 - 30 pts
2nd: Yunxiu Lu (CHN) (17) 1 4 1 1 7 (24) 3 1 - 35 pts
3rd: Zofia Noceti- Klepacka (POL) 1 5.2 RDG 3 4 10 8 7 (14) 7 - 45.2 pts
55th: Veerle ten Have (NZL) 9 24 (29) 29 29 29 25 25 24 - 194 pts

Men's formula kite (61 boards)
1st: Nicolas Parlier (FRA) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (11) 1 2 (23 DCT) 1 3 8 1 6 - 29 pts
2nd: Guy Bridge (GBR) (2) (12) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 DNC 4 3 - 29 pts
3rd: Oliver Bridge (GBR) 1 (5) 2 2 1 2 1 1 (6) 1 1 1 1 7 2 8 - 31 pts
18th: Sam Bullock (NZL) 6 5 5 7 6 6 (23 DNC) 6 (11) 10 3 5 7 8 7 9 - 90 pts