Paris 2024: Nervy wait for Wilkinson/Dawson as Kites and Men's ILCA exit

Micah Wilkinson & Erica Dawson (NZL) - Mixed Multihull - Nacra17 - Paris 2024 - Marseille - August 6, 2024 © World Sailing / Lloyd Images

New Zealand faces another nervy wait for a shot at a second Olympic sailing medal, as the fickle Marseille wind pushed the mixed multihull decider into a reserve day and played a part in ending the campaign of three other Kiwi competitors. Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson's double-points medal race will now be sailed at 12.15 pm tomorrow (10.15 pm NZ time) after another day featuring lengthy delays and race abandonments that have marred the sailing competition over much of the last 11 days.

The Kiwi pair is placed fourth overall, level on points with Great Britain's John Gimson and Anna Burnet, and six points behind Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco of Argentina in second.

Wilkinson and Dawson will battle the British and Argentinians for silver or bronze, with Italian leaders Ruggero Tita and Catarina Banti on 27 points and out of their reach.

"There was a lot of waiting again today, but we can't complain too much - the other classes have done a lot more of it while we have been quite fortunate to get all our qualifying races in," Dawson said.

"We're not too disappointed [with the postponement] as we'd prefer to be sailing in a bit more breeze to have a proper race. Hopefully, that's what we get tomorrow."

Only two races were completed today - the women's and men's dinghy medal races. Both were sailed in extremely light conditions, with the latter abandoned at the first attempt.

A shortened course made Tom Saunders' already monumental task even harder.

At a minimum, the ILCA veteran needed to win the medal race and hope for favourable other placings, after his final two qualifying races were scrapped on Monday, leaving him in seventh overall and 18 points off the podium spots.

Saunders got off to a less-than-ideal start, beginning near the back of the fleet before improving to sixth at the second mark and fifth at the third.

That was where he would finish, crossing behind Matt Wearn (Australia), Pavlos Kontides (Cyprus), Jonathan Vadnai (Hungary), and Hermann Tomasgaard (Norway) to claim seventh overall.

Gold went to Wearn, silver to Kontides, and bronze to Peruvian Stefano Peschiera.

"It's obviously not how I wanted it to end, but I am proud of my campaign and that I got this far," Saunders said.

"I started this campaign with my coach (Mike Bullot) almost by chance three years ago, and I owe Mike a lot for investing in me back then. Another campaign is not a decision I can make on my own. I need to take some time now to process and consider everything."

Dutch veteran Marit Bouwmeester claimed her fourth Olympic medal and second gold in the women's dinghy, with Kiwi Greta Pilkington impressing with a 34th place in her debut Games.

After completing only three races yesterday, the men's and women's kitefoilers couldn't get off the start line today, with officials deciding to abruptly end qualifying after seven of 16 scheduled races, sending the competition straight into the top-10 medal series tomorrow.

Walton-Keim was 15th overall, 26 points from the cut-off, while Kitchen finished 17th following several crashes in qualifying.

"It's a big anticlimax because we were confident that we would get some racing in today, but then, suddenly, it's over," Walton-Keim said.

"Justina and I have worked really hard on sailing in these light conditions because we know it's a weakness for us, but it just wasn't enough. It's still been the most unbelievable experience, though. Just today I had six schoolmates in the crowd, supporting me. We'll be back."

Kitchen was equally disappointed.

"It's pretty rough for it to end this way because we both know we're capable of a lot better. It's hard to swallow because we felt we had a lot more to prove, but that's racing and we know this can happen in Marseille," she said.

"I also have to remember that it has been a long road back for me after my [serious knee] injury. I wasn't really expected to be here, so I'm proud of myself. I've learned a lot, and it's been awesome."

Latest results and standings from day 11 of the Olympic sailing competition in Marseille:

Men's dinghy fleet (43 boats)
1. Matt Wearn (Aus) 12 2 1 (18) 1 2 10 10 2 - 40 pts
2. Pavlos Kontides (Cyp) 17 5 (27) 5 10 5 3 7 4 - 56 pts
3. Stefano Peschiera (Per) 6 1 14 11 (20) 14 12 4 18 - 80 pts
7. Tom Saunders (NZ) 11 17 10 7 19 3 (44BFD) 13 10 - 90 pts

Mixed multihull fleet (19 boats)
1. Ruggero Tita/Caterina Banti (Ita) 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 6 6 (20UFD) 5 2 - 27 pts
2. Mateo Majdalani/Eugenia Bosco (Arg) 2 2 5 10 6 6 3 2 2 1 2 (12) - 41 pts
3. John Gimson/Anna Burnet (GBR) 8 4 6 3 4 9 4 5 4 5 1 3 - 47 pts
4. Micah Wilkinson/Erica Dawson (NZ) 5 3 7 2 2 3 2 4 9 (17) 3 7 - 47 pts

Men's kite fleet (20 boards)
1. Toni Vodisek (Slo) 2 5 1 3 (10) 1 (12) - 12 pts
2. Max Maeder (SGP) 5 1 2 (21DNF) 3 (11) 4 - 15 pts
3. Valentin Bontus (Aut) 1 2 5 (8) 4 5 (20) - 17 pts
15. Lukas Walton-Keim (NZ) 12 (18) 13 10 17 9 (18) - 61 pts

Women's kite fleet (20 boards)
1. Lauriane Nolot (Fra) 2 1 (12) 2 6 1 - 12 pts
2. Eleanor Aldridge (GBR) 1 2 2 3 4 (21DNS) - 12 pts
3. Daniela Moroz (USA) (7) 3 4 1 2 7 - 17 pts
17. Justina Kitchen (NZ) 9 10 (21DNF) 16 18 21DNS - 74 pts

Full results here