New Zealand sailors walked away from the Enoshima Olympic Week regatta with four medals, including golds to Alex Maloney and Molly Meech in the 49erFX and Tom Saunders in the Laser.
Alex Maloney and Molly Meech Photo: Supplied
It was a good return for the Kiwi contingent and eight of the 10 boats finished inside the top 10.
Erica Dawson and Kate Stewart were third in the 49erFX, as were Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn in the 49er.
A number of countries were using the three-day regatta as a first opportunity to race at the venue for the 2020 Olympics and the Laser fleet in particular was littered with world, Olympic and European champions.
Saunders clinched gold on the back of a second placing in today's only race.
It was a terrific end to a long season for Saunders. He was eighth at the world championships in Croatia and fourth at the world championships test event in Aarhus and his results could be enough to see him elevated to the top-tier NZL Sailing Team.
"This is my first proper win in the Laser fleet so I am really happy," Saunders said. "It's been quite a long season, so to finish it off like this means a lot. I will have a nice break when I get home and reset and go from there.
"Today was pretty good. There was obviously a lot of rain and there was poor visibility. It was probably the worst conditions I have sailed in. Going upwind you couldn't see the top mark and you could barely see the rest of the fleet. It was pretty strange in that sense but you just had to work with what you got."
Maloney and Meech easily won both races today to finish nine points ahead of the German pair of Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz.
The Olympic silver medallists had a poor start to the regatta but roared back with five wins and a second placing in the last six races.
"It's cool to win the regatta, the first regatta at the Olympic venue," Meech said. "But it will get more and more competitive over coming years with the fleet growing and I think everyone here was learning about the venue, just figuring things out."
