Medalist hopeful home worlds will boost Kiwi entries
Christopher Reive
Olympic silver medallist Molly Meech is hopeful more Kiwis will take to the water when New Zealand hosts the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 world championships next year.
As many as 400 of the world’s best sailors will descend on Auckland’s Royal Akarana Yacht Club from November 29 to December 8 next year, with many of the countries involved likely to use the event for Olympic selection.
With the cost of competing significantly less with it being at home, Meech said it would be good to see lots of Kiwis involved.
“I think because it’s in our own country and people will be able to get second-hand boats or just boats from the rest of the New Zealand sailing team, hopefully we’ll see a few more of the younger guys jumping in a bit earlier than normal. It’d be awesome to have 10 or 12 boats from New Zealand competing.”
With the Volvo Ocean Race in town, Meech was hopeful the profile of the sport would continue to rise with the announcement of the world championships.
Meech and 49erFX partner Alex Maloney were preparing to travel to Europe for this year’s world championships in Denmark in August.
While they weren’t looking past this year’s event, the idea of being able to display why they love their sport on home seas was an exciting prospect.
“For New Zealand to see what kind of sport we do and to see the different levels of it is pretty special,” Meech said.
“For us having the Volvo here, we get pretty excited about it and it’s cool to see the hype of the public flowing through. I think it’ll keep raising the profile of sailing and hopefully become one of those mainstream sports some day.”
Olympic gold medalist 49er duo Blair Tuke and Peter Burling are yet to confirm their involvement in the event but Tuke said he was keen to be a part of it.
“Pete and I would love to be there but we’re still working that through with our coaches and will decide after the Volvo Ocean Race is completed.”
Tuke was also coy on whether he and Burling would defend their gold medal in Tokyo in 2020 but hinted that the 2021 America’s Cup was a high priority for the duo.
“The Olympics is something that’s been a massive part of who we are and such a big part of our careers for so long, so it’s something we’re still very passionate about. To represent New Zealand at the Olympics doesn’t come easily and you don’t take it for granted.
“I wouldn’t say it’s likely,” Tuke said, “but it’s something we’d love to do — we’d love to, if we can, do the next Olympics but we need to make sure we do it right. We don’t want to do it if we can’t put in the effort that we think we can do to win a gold medal.
“They’re very different, but to have the America’s Cup here and try to defend it would be pretty special, too.”
Tuke and Burling would likely need to sail in the 2019 world championship regatta in order to return to the Olympics but weren’t going to force anything.