Four races into the qualifying series, two New Zealand sailors have broken into the top 10 at the ILCA 6 Youth World Championships in Aarhus, a second day of strong racing hauling the Kiwi contingent sharply up the standings.
Chloe Turner was the standout. The Murrays Bay sailor posted a 3, 2, 13 scorecard across three races on Saturday to climb from 65th to ninth overall, a turnaround that will have caught the attention of the rest of the girls' fleet.
Tom Pilkington matched her charge in the boys' competition, opening his qualifying series with a 2, 5, 10 to move into ninth in a fleet of more than 300 sailors.
Winds building from 12-15 knots and peaking at 23 knots allowed three races to be completed across both fleets, pulling the championship back towards schedule after Friday's frustrating delays.
Turner had been the only Kiwi to get a race away on that curtailed opening day. The jump from there to ninth is a decent indication of what Saturday's breeze unlocked.
Among the other New Zealand boys, Arran Begic sits 20th and Toby Dunn 55th. Isaac Gaites is 104th, George Turner 144th, Thomas Linklater 155th, Thomas Jurczyluk 157th. Lukas Johnson is 220th overall but sits just outside the top 50 in the under-17 category.
The boys have now completed three qualifying races. The girls have completed four.
