NZL Sailing Team - Meech sails a counter on Day 2 at the Laser Worlds

by Yachting NZ on 16 Sep 2017 Only one race was possible at the Laser world championships in Croatia overnight (NZ time) but it was enough time for Sam Meech to move up a position into second.

The Olympic bronze medallist was second in his race and sits on seven points overall, behind Cypriot Pavlos Kontides who has won all three of his races.

Tom Saunders is handily placed in 16th after banking a seventh overnight and Andrew McKenzie made good progress up the leaderboard with a superb second in his race - the 147 sailors are split into three fleets for three days of qualifying before they move into gold, silver and bronze fleet.

McKenzie is 44th overall but has the potential to move up considerably because he has two very good results on his scorecard (fifth and second). He was a lowly 46th in the first race of the regatta but will hope to discard that as one of his worst results so he's under a little pressure not to make too many mistakes in the final day of qualifying tonight.

Meech has so far been largely mistake-free with three top-five finishes, including one win.

All of the sailors had a late start waiting for the breeze to fill in, meaning only one race was possible.

'The breeze was actually fantastic by the time we got out, about 10-12 knots, it was just so slow to come,' Meech said.

'I had a really good start and managed to pop out a little bit and had a really good race against one of the British sailors. Unfortunately he pulled away from me in the last run and I had to settle for second, but I'm really happy with how the day went and it puts me in a good position leading into tomorrow.'

Three races are scheduled for tonight in an effort to catch up and more breeze is forecast, which Meech said he was looking forward to.

It should also suit Saunders, who is in a good position but a little frustrated with one aspect in particular of his sailing.

'I just need to get off the line cleanly and I'll be fine,' he said. 'I've been playing catch-up so far but I was happy to be able to come back [today] and still count a keeper.

'My speed is great but I would rather use it at the front than trying to sail through the fleet.'

Youngster George Gautrey was 27th in his race and 68th overall.

Results and standings after the second day of the Laser world championships in Split, Croatia, overnight (NZ time):

1st: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 1 1 1 - 3 points
2nd: Sam Meech (NZL) 1 4 2 - 7 pts
3rd: Sergey Komissarov (RUS) 1 6 3 - 10 pts

16th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 15 3 7 - 25 pts
44th: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 46 5 2 - 53 pts
68th: George Gautrey (NZL) 18 28 27 - 73pts

For full results click here