Sailing: Tauranga teens seal worlds selection

Tauranga sailors Sam Barnett (Tauranga Boys' College) and Zak Merton (Otumoetai College) have been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2013 ISAF Youth Worlds in Limassol, Cyprus from July 13-20.

The teenagers will compete in the two-handed boys' 420 class. The worlds are raced on a similar structure to the Olympics where each country sends one entry to each class.

Meanwhile, their Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club teammates continue to lead the way at the halfway stage of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Palma, Spain. With day three wrapped up, the qualification series is done and the regatta heads into the business-end.

New Zealand are in good shape with the Maloney and Meech siblings leading the charge. Three kiwi crews - Laser men Andy Maloney and Sam Meech (Tauranga), and 49er pair Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech (Tauranga) - are in the top three in their fleet.

From this point in the regatta each boat's scorecard gets wiped clean as the fleets enter the two-day finals stage, ahead of the one-day medal stage.

Day three belonged to Andy Maloney and Sam Meech on the Laser course.

Aucklander Maloney came away with two bullets from two races sailed, lifting him in the standings to second overall. Lying fourth at the outset of day three, Maloney's results mean that he goes into the second half of the regatta with two points.

Also on the Laser course, Meech had a top day and his results, an 11th and a win, mean he climbs to third overall and carries just three points into the next round.

"Andy had two good starts," said high performance manager Jez Fanstone. "He sailed good beats, and he was just too quick. Sam was fast too - he won his last race. They're a pleased bunch."

Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech continued their good form into day three of the regatta, and were the best performing crew on the 49er FX class for the day. Starting the day second overall they added two bullets and a second place making big points gains on the leaders.

Both Josh Junior and Andrew Murdoch (Tauranga) sail through to the gold fleet for Finn finals - Junior taking with him eight points and Murdoch 15.

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders (Tauranga), New Zealand's new pairing in the mixed multihull Nacra 17, have also sailed well enough to secure a place in the gold fleet. They will carry 15 points.