New Zealand Sailing Team Wins 2013 World Womens 470 Championship

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie have won the 470 Women’s World Champions title in La Rochelle, France, exactly a year to the day after winning Gold at the 2012 Olympics. Though the pair have won plenty of World Championship and ISAF World Cup titles, this is the first time the pair have won the 470 World Champions title.

“Finally our first world title in the 470!” exclaimed Aleh. “We won the medal race to finish in style. One year ago today it was Olympic Gold, now the world title.”

Speaking of the race Aleh said, “We were pretty relaxed going into today. It wasn’t all over, but we were pretty relaxed and that helped. We sailed a great race.”

Aleh and Powrie announced their campaign towards Rio 2016 in December last year and since getting back in the boat early in 2013 have taken out Oceanbridge Sail Auckland, EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup in Garda and Delta Lloyd Regatta now adding the 2013 World title topping off an excellent year.

New Zealand men’s representatives, Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Wilcox, secured 7th place in Men’s 470 World Championship.