‘Perfect start’ as Meech leads fleet at worlds

Sam Meech illustrated why he's one of the favourites in the Laser fleet at the sailing world championships with two wins on his opening day of action.

The Rio Olympics bronze medallist revelled in the 10-12 knot sea breeze off the coast of Aarhus to take an early lead but most of the contenders also punched out low scores to sit close behind after two races.

It was a profitable day for a number of other New Zealanders, with Andrew McKenzie (seventh) and Tom Saunders (21st) also in the mix in the Laser, Josh Junior (10th) and Andy Maloney (11th) both well placed in the Finn and Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox jumping up to 11th in the men's 470.

But it was Meech who stole the show. As one of his training partners put it, he made it look easy out on the Bay of Aarhus.

“I don't know about that,” he said. “There were some dangerous moments but I managed to make a couple of good decisions which led to two good races and my speed was reasonably good as well.

“It's a perfect start for me. I couldn't really ask for much more from a first day but it's still early in the regatta.”

The Laser is by far the biggest fleet at the world championships, with 165 sailors divided into three fleets. They will sail two more days of qualifying races before the top third are put into gold fleet to decide the medals.

McKenzie was sixth and fourth in the same fleet as Meech and, although Saunders was a little disappointed, little damage was done to his scoreboard.

Junior brushed aside his poor firstup race, banking a third, eighth and fifth to jump into 10th overall now the discard for the worst score has come into play. He's level on points with fellow Kiwi Andy Maloney who was 13th, fifth and fifth in his races.

“It was much better than yesterday,” Junior said. “Yesterday I didn't do anything right but I made a conscious effort today to try to get some good starts and I did that and I think that's what got me some good results.”

Snow-Hansen and Willcox were feeling much better about their chances after three results in the top seven yesterday which lifted them to 11th overall, only six points off the lead.