Yachting New Zealand:
Eli Liefting (Selwyn College) and Rose Dickson (King’s College) won the RS Feva world championships in the Netherlands, despite the fact Dickson sailed the final two days with fractured fingers.
The pair started the final day one point behind the British combination of Henry and Rupert Jameson but took pole position when they won the first race of the day. It meant they simply needed to finish ahead of their nearest rivals in the last race of the championships to claim the title.
Liefting and Dickson, who is the daughter of former Team New Zealand helmsman Chris Dickson, finished fifth and the Brits were 10th, meaning the New Zealanders won the title by six points. Pierce Harris and Alfie Cogger from Great Britain took bronze, 21 points behind the winners.
Liefting and Dickson’s win was not without drama. Dickson got her hand caught in a halyard on the penultimate day, leaving her with three suspected fractured fingers and in considerable pain. The pair finished 15th in that race, their discard as their worst performance, but were otherwise very consistent, never finishing outside the top seven in the 59-boat gold fleet – every other team had at least two scores in double figures.