New Zealand's Aleh and Meech Revive Olympic Hopes with Thrilling Skiff Comeback

There was some surprising movement on the overall leaderboards after the long-awaited fresh breeze arrived to give sailors in the Windsurfer and Skiff events some relief from the marginal sailing conditions of the first two days of the 2024 Olympic Regatta.

Perhaps the biggest change in performance and results came from the New Zealand women's skiff crew of Jo Aleh and Molly Meech, who returned a performance more worthy of Olympic Gold and Silver medalists.

After languishing at the bottom of the points table for the first two days of the regatta, the Kiwis returned a 3, 2, 1 scorecard for the day to rocket up the points table from 20th at the start of the day to be 7th overall at the end.

Olympic Comeback

Aleh is no stranger to big comebacks. After a dreadful start to the regatta in the Rio 2016 Olympics, she pulled a similar feat. But with a very gritty but focused approach, she took it one race at a time in the final two days of the regatta and exited her final year in the 470 class as a proud winner of the Silver medal.

The veteran duo grabbed the headlines on Day 3 of the sailing competition in Marseille, securing top-three results in all three of their races to jump 12 places overall. They are only 15 points behind the third-placed Swedes, Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler, with three qualifying races and a double-points medal race remaining.

After two days of light breeze, Tuesday brought winds upward of 20 knots and a change in fortunes for the Auckland duo. They were tactically outstanding and showed excellent boat speed to secure scores of 3, 2, and 1, with the last race going down to the wire against fleet leaders Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz of the Netherlands. The result ensured they would return to shore in seventh spot after being rooted to the bottom of the 20-boat leaderboard after the opening day.

While thrilled with their turnaround, Aleh admitted it's been a challenging few days. "It's pretty painful because you put a lot into it. Sport is tough and yachting is hard. You don't always get it right and sometimes you get it really wrong," she said. "It's important to remember why you do it - we sail because we love sailing. And when you get a nice day, it's like, never mind the racing, just being out there today, sending it around in the skiff, is pretty cool. Even when it's a bad day, you've got to look for the positives."

A Journey of Learning

Aleh, a double Olympic medallist in the women's 470, joined Rio silver medallist Meech in the 49erFX in early 2022, and they have faced a steep learning curve: "It's been a journey to get here and we're proud that we've managed to get better and have been able to remind ourselves that we can sail. It's easy to forget that sometimes!"

Repaying the Faith

Meech described winning their first Olympic race together as "pretty special".

"The first two days were a struggle for us, it was very tough. We are far more comfortable in slightly bigger breeze, so we were hoping that we might be able to stretch our legs today and go out there and do our best," she said.

"We've worked hard this campaign and we've really sacrificed a lot. We can only thank Yachting New Zealand, our supporters, and our coach Javi (Torres del Moral), who have put up with us through some disappointing results over the campaign.

"We've been pushing hard to get to this point and we're not leaving anything out there. To come away with a win today felt pretty special and our coach was cheering from the coach box - actually, a few of the coaches were cheering along with our teammates - which was cool to see. To be able to pick ourselves back up after the first couple of days feels good. We've always said we want to make ourselves proud and make New Zealand proud. I think we did that today."

A Shift in Fortune

While Aleh and Meech basked in the stronger wind, men's skiff (49er) crew Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie had a challenging day, surrendering their yellow bibs with scores of 11, 18, and 17. The 'McKiwis,' who won three of their first six races, are now third overall, 15 points behind the leading team Diego Botin and Florian Trittel of Spain.

Earlier, Josh Armit (men's windsurfing) became the first Kiwi to win an Olympic iQFOiL race, with windfoiling making its debut at the Games. Armit led from start to finish in the second race of the day. The 22-year-old also punched in scores of 18, 14, and 8 before a disqualification in the day's last race saw him slip from fifth to 10th overall.

"We had a real range of conditions out there. It started out pretty light with some big puffs and it filled in pretty consistently at the end of the day," Armit said. "Winning my first Olympic race is just part of the process of what I want to achieve. Things happen pretty quickly out there - if you make one mistake, your race is pretty much over."

Veerle ten Have again showed glimpses of her blistering best in the women's event, leading in the first race of the day before falling off her foils late to finish 16th. She also carried scores of 8, 18, and 12, with a highlight her fifth place in the penultimate course race.

The Road Ahead

Aleh and Meech's impressive comeback has reinvigorated their Olympic campaign. With three crucial races remaining before the medal race, the New Zealand duo are poised for a thrilling finish, aiming to captivate the world with their resilience and determination.