New Zealand men’s dinghy sailor Tom Saunders is not out of medal contention at the Paris Olympics, but has dented his chances.
The 32-year-old from Tauranga was awarded a BFD, which meant he was disqualified in his first race on Sunday (Monday NZ Time) and managed 13th (in a field of 43) in his other race in Marseille.
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He has slipped down the leaderboard and with two races left before the double-points medal race, he sits in sth spot with 80 points. The field is headed by Australian Matt Wearn with just 38 points.
Saunders was disqualified, along with several other boats, for starting prematurely when the race was under a black flag. The penalty is maximum points, so it was the worst possible start to Saunders’ day.
“I was looking to capitalise and didn’t execute properly and got the BFD,” he said. “Then in the second race I was going alright but lost a few places towards the end. So not a great day.”
Saunders was hopeful that if he can string together a couple of good races on Monday, he could still be in medal contention.
Greta Pilkington, New Zealand’s entry in the women’s dinghy, had placings of 17th and 21st on Sunday and after eight races has moved into 28th spot overall from 43 entries.
The kite events got under way on Sunday. In the men’s kite there were four races and Lukas Walton-Keim had placings of 12th, 18th, 14th and 10th to be 14th in the field of 20 at an early stage.
In the women’s kite, Aucklander Justina Kitchen recorded placings of ninth, 11th and 20th to be 13th after the first day’s racing.
Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson continue to prosper in the mixed multihull (nacra) and have now recorded placings of fifth, third, seventh, second, second and third to lie second overall on 15 points.
The Italian boat leads with just five points, having had five wins. In this event there is a clear division between the best-performing boats and the rest and races are largely dominated by the same few boats.
A crash that blocked the road ended the hopes of New Zealanders Niamh Fisher-Black and Kim Cadzow in the challenging women’s road cycling race.
Niamh Fisher-Black eventually placed 31st, finishing in a group of 18 five minutes behind the winner, American Kristen Faulkner, while Cadzow finished a further four minutes back in 56th on Sunday (Monday NZT).
The crash occurred about two-thirds of the way into the 158km race and cost the New Zealanders dearly.
“That was the race. We had no chance after that, which is really disappointing. I felt good and thought I could figure in the race," said a disappointed Fisher-Black.
Fisher-Black, 23, did not have the best of luck throughout. With about 100km remaining, she required a bike change.
Continuing the disappointing trend from the previous night in athletics, Lauren Bruce bowed out of the women’s hammer throw on Sunday when she was unable to make it out of the qualification round.
The 27-year-old from Christchurch had a best throw of 68.93m, which placed her 11th in her qualifying group and only 20th overall.
The top-12 throwers overall from the two groups progressed. Bruce’s three qualifying round throws were foul, 67.08m, 68.93m, well behind the leading qualifier, Finland's Krista Tervo with 74.79m.
It was a similar story for New Zealand women’s skeet shooter Chloe Tipple, whose woes continued on the second day of qualifying.
On the opening day of qualifying, the Christchurch shooter had rounds of 23, 22, 20 to place her well down in the field of 29, with only the top-six advancing to the final.
She was unable to make up ground on Sunday, recording 20 and 23 in her final two rounds, for a total of 108 and 28th placing.
Paris was Tipple's third Olympics, having previously finished 13th at Rio 2016 and 27th in Tokyo three years ago.