Sailing: Bay pair hold medal promise

The 2013 49er European Championships is under way in Arhus, Denmark, with two high-profile Tauranga sailors to the forefront of medal expectations.

Peter Burling and Molly Meech are expected to be standing on the podium after the finals on Sunday but there are no guarantees in yachting. However, hopes are high that the two sailors, who began it all at the Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat Club, will have a successful regatta against most of the world's best crews.

The European champs are a return to the Olympic campaign trail for New Zealand's London Olympic silver medallists Burling and Blair Tuke.

Racing takes place over six days in Arhus where organisers will trial an experimental format for racing. The European Championship Regatta includes the men's and women's Olympic skiff events - the 49er and the 49erFX.

Staring down the barrel of another four-year campaign towards the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Burling anticipates that many of the top sailors from London 2012 will be back on the circuit.

"It doesn't sound like many of the good guys aren't going to give it another crack. I think it's one of the few fleets where that's happened and there's really no one that's leaving," said Burling.

"This will be our first international 49er regatta back since the Olympics so we're really excited to get back racing and see where the fleet has got to," said Tuke. "For us it's about getting back into it and start going through our routines."

Alongside Burling and Tuke, another three Kiwi crews are preparing for the upcoming competition which will see the world's best Olympic skiff sailors lining up.

Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski will compete in the 49er, as will Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock, and 49erFX world number one ranked crew Alexandra Maloney and Tauranga's Meech will be back in action in the women's racing.

After a gold and a silver medal at the ISAF Sailing World Cup regattas in Spain and France earlier this year, Maloney and Meech have asserted themselves as a crew to watch.

But they are well aware that it is early days in the new Olympic discipline and Arhus will provide plenty of opportunity to learn more and see how they're tracking.

"The Danish girls are our friends, they won in Palma, so obviously there's a bit of competition between us," said Meech. "But there are definitely some crews that we haven't come up against yet so it will be interesting to see who turns up."

Maloney, 21, has sailed at the venue previously when representing New Zealand in the 2008 NZL Yachting Trust Youth Team.

"We had a week of unusual weather, we had big waves and really cold weather," she recalls. "Hopefully it's a bit nicer this time."