Jo Aleh and Molly Meech. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing
New Zealand's Jo Aleh and Molly Meech thought their Games were over and were celebrating their last sail, until an official told the duo they had made the women's skiff medal race.
"We were coming in thinking it was our last sail in the (49er) FX, so when we got ashore and someone came to us and said we're going to take your boat to quarantine, we were like, 'oh ... we made the medal race," Meech, 31, told Reuters.
The medal race was scheduled to be the first for women's sailing at this Olympics and is due to follow a finely-poised men's skiff medal race featuring the "McKiwis" Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie, who are in the mix for a medal.
Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing
Although their previous scores in the series mean the Kiwi women cannot make the podium, they are going to give it their all in the 10-boat showcase race.
"We're pretty stoked," Meech, the New Zealand crew who won silver in the skiff in Rio in 2016, said.
Meech's helm Aleh, 38, who won gold and then silver in the now defunct women's dinghy in 2012 and 2016, said that compared with how they had sailed at the start of the event to where the duo now stood it had been "a pretty good Games".
"We were just busy celebrating our last sail ... so we have to go out and do it again now," said Aleh.
"It's going to be fun, one more race," she said, smiling.
The pair will have to wait another day for that race, with the men's and women's medal races in the skiff class have been postponed due to light, shifty conditions in Marseille.
Race officials twice got the men's 49er medal race, featuring New Zealand duo Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie, underway, but both times the wind dropped out mid-race forcing the races to be abandoned.
McHardie and McKenzie are in bronze position heading into the double-points medal race, within touching distance of silver. But with 12 points separating second to seventh, there remain a number of crews in with a shot of snatching a medal.
Given the stakes, officials were under extra pressure to set a fair course. When a number of boats coming to a standstill in the light conditions off Marseille during the two attempted races, the umpires opted to abandon racing and reset the course.
The umpires eventually called it a day around 5.30pm local time, meaning the fleet will have to come back and do it all again tomorrow.
The delays had a flow-on effect to the 49erFX medal race. The women's skiff fleet, which included Kiwi pair Jo Aleh and Molly Meech, was due to race after the men.
Aleh and Meech are positioned seventh heading into the medal race and are not in contention for a podium spot.
-Reuters/RNZ
