New Zealand see two titles slip through fingers as Britain win three events at ISAF World Cup

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke were able to maintain their lead to give New Zealand a gold ©Getty Images

New Zealand saw two International Sailing Federation (ISAF) World Cup titles disappear on the final day of action in Weymouth and Portland, while hosts Britain secured three overall victories in the Olympic classes.

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, began the day with a two-point advantage over Britain’s Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark in the women’s 470, but the Kiwi’s saw their advantage wiped out and were forced to settle for silver.

It proved to be a role reversal of the London 2012 Olympics, which took place on the same water, with Mills and Clark having led only to be pegged back at the last to take silver rather than gold on that occasion.

Similarly to Aleh and Powrie, Alex Maloney and Molly Meech would end the day wondering what might have been after seeing their five-point lead being wiped out in the 49FX by world number ones Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze.

The Brazilian pairing produced their best race of the week when it mattered most to earn the race victory before taking the tile after Maloney and Meech were only able to record a ninth place finish.

"We just didn't get the shift right today and we couldn't stay with our competitors which was a bit of a mistake and we just let the Brazilians get away from us,” Maloney said.

"It was a pretty nice week sailing in Weymouth, we got some pretty good races in but we had a disappointing Medal Race and we can learn lot from it."

Nick Dempsey held off his teammate Tom Squires to win the RS:X class — Britain's Nick Dempsey held off his team-mate Tom Squires to win the RS:X class ©Getty Images

Their compatriots Peter Burling and Blair Tuke had no such trouble in the men’s 470 class having boasted an 18 point lead prior to the medal race which they successful maintained, a feat replicated by The Netherlands’ Marit Bouwmeester as she completed her excellent regatta to finish fourth in the Laser Radial medal race and end nine points clear of second placed Evi Van Acker of Belgium.

Prior to the men’s Laser medal race only four points separated leader Tonci Stipanovic of Croatia, Matt Wearn of Australia and Phillip Buhl, with the German eventually prevailing on the final day from one point from Wearn.

Buhl owed his success to Wearn’s team-mate Tom Burton, who finished between the two men in the finishing straight to allow the German to take the narrowest of wins, while Stipanovic dropped to third overall after a disappointing final event.

Home success was secured by the ever-reliable Giles Scott in the Finn class as he held off New Zealand’s Josh Junior, despite both men being forced to do penalty turns.

Fellow Briton’s Nick Dempsey and Tom Squires took the top two positions in the men’s RS:X class although ,what looked for much of the week like a close fought battle, eventually ended 18 points in Dempsey favour.

Disaster struck to prevent a fourth home gold as in the corresponding women’s event leader Isobel Hamilton sailed off course to drop out of the medal places, with Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini taking gold in her place, finishing five points clear of Britain’s Bryony Shaw.

The United States’ Stu McNay and Dave Hughes however made light work of completing the job in the men's 470 as they rubber stamped their overall victory with a win in the medal race, with Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin of Australia finished third in their final race of the regatta to take the Nacra 17 title.