NZL Sailing Team ends 2015 Laser World Champs with two in top seven

by Yachting New Zealand on 11 Jul 2015 New Zealand has wrapped up the 2015 Laser World Championships with an excellent final day in Kingston, Canada to take two top seven places in the hard fought, seven day regatta.

Andy Maloney has finished sixth overall, while team-mate Sam Meech has finished seventh.

Lying 12th (Maloney) and 10th (Meech) going into the final day, both will be delighted with today’s performance and their overall result at this regatta which has seen a wide range of conditions including two light days when no racing was possible.

“I had a good day including a race win to move up and finish sixth overall for the championship,” reports Maloney. “It was an incredibly tricky week with some very mentally tough conditions throughout.”

“I'm now very much looking forward to a couple of weeks back home in New Zealand.”

25 year old Maloney was recently named as the NZL Sailing Team Laser representative for the 2015 Rio Test Event (Aquece Rio International Regatta) on this August at the 2016 Olympic venue.

Other results throughout 2015 for Andy Maloney (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) include top ten finishes at all three ISAF Sailing World Cup series regattas with a fourth at Miami (January), ninth at Hyeres (April) and seventh at Weymouth just last month.

For Sam Meech, from the Tauranga Yacht & Powerboat Club, this is his best ever result at a Laser World Championship Regatta after a previous best of ninth at 2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup Santander.

Meech has consistently placed top 15 at this year’s ISAF Sailing World Cup Regattas with a 13th in Miami, 14th in Hyeres and eighth at ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth.

Two more kiwis racing in Kingston were among the gold fleet today including Thomas Saunders, who finished 27th and Michael Bullot who finished 46th overall. Aon Fast Track Squad sailor Andrew McKenzie narrowly missed the cut for gold fleet, but has gone on to place ninth in the silver fleet.

Elsewhere around the globe NZL Sailing Team crews were competing at the 2015 Nacra World Championships where day four of six has just concluded in Aarhus, Denmark. The 49er and 49erFX European Championships are underway in Porto, Portugal featuring where four New Zealand crews are competing.

2015 Laser World Championships NZL Sailing Team final results

6th Andy Maloney
7th Sam Meech
27th Thomas Saunders
46th Michael Bullot
9th Silver fleet Andrew McKenzie (Aon Fast Track)

Regatta website http://kingstonlaserworlds2015.com/