Tauranga sailors at the top

Tauranga sailor Tom Saunders pipped at the post by Tauranga sailor Sam Meech. Photo: Sailing Energy.

Half a world away at the world championships test event in Aarhus, Denmark and the laser medals came to a struggle between two Tauranga Yacht club sailors Tom Saunders and Sam Meech.

Sam pipped Tom for the bronze medal, the same colour he won at the Rio Olympics. But he didn't start as a medal prospect.

Sam was 19th in the first race and followed it up with a black flag disqualification for being over the start line in the second. He was able to discard that result as his worst of the regatta but it put pressure on him for the rest of the week. Two wins on the second to last day put him into medal contention.

Sam finished fourth in the double points medal race overnight, Tom finished eighth overnight, for third.

"It's really nice to catch up after such a terrible start," he said yesterday. "It's nice to have been able to chip away but I really don't want to be in the position of needing to do that again if I can help it."

Tom was in bronze medal contention at the start of the medal race, and he was disappointed to miss out but said it felt better it went to Meech.

Tom sailed consistently all week, featuring in the top three of the standings from the outset in a quality field. He started well in the medal race, rounding the first top mark in good shape and sitting fourth heading into the final lap but picked up a penalty for body pumping and was forced to complete a penalty turn.

"It gave Sam an opportunity which he took advantage of," says Tom. "He had a great week of sailing and well deserved a medal.

"It's probably the best regatta I've had at this level. It was a great week, especially as all the top guys were here. If you said I would have a shot at winning gold going into the medal race at the start of the week I definitely would have taken it. It just stings a bit as I was in the medals all week.

"I feel like I'm tracking well. I'm happy with where I am at and I can take great confidence leading into our world championships [in Croatia in September]."

Matthew Wearn won gold in the laser with fellow Australian and Olympic champion Tom Burton in second.

Meech's bronze comes on the back of the silver picked up by Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders in the Nacra 17.

Aarhus will host next year's combined sailing world championships, when all the Olympic classes compete.

Results and final standings from the sailing world championships test event in Aarhus overnight (NZ time):

Nacra 17 (14 boats)

1st: Lin Cenholt / Christian Lubeck (DEN) (5) 5 3 2 3 3 4 2 3 - 30 points

2nd: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 2 1 3 (9) 8 4 7 2 4 2 - 33 pts

3rd: Anette Viborg/ Mathias Borreskov (DEN) 4 4 7 2 6 (15 UFD) 1 9 3 1 - 37 pts

Laser (62 boats)

1st: Matthew Wearn (AUS) 2 3 3 3 (33) 6 7 13 9 10 - 56 pts

2nd: Tom Burton (AUS) 3 2 8 1 26 4 3 12 (54) 6 - 65 pts

3rd: Sam Meech (NZL) 19 (63 BFD) 14 4 4 9 1 1 16 8 - 76 pts

4th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 6 4 20 2 10 1 14 5 (23) 16 - 78 pts

Laser Radial (27 boats)

11th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 12 18 (19) 7 9 9 9 2 10 - 76 pts

RS:X (46 boards)

34th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) 19 34 27 (39) 25 27 22 32 30 - 216 pts

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