Sailing: Sam Meech sneaks into top 10 medal race at World Cup regatta

Sam Meech qualified for the medal race. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing.

Sam Meech's up-and-down week continued but he experienced enough of an up overnight (NZT) to sneak into the top 10 medal race in the Laser class at the World Cup regatta in Hyeres, France.

The Olympic bronze medallist won the third race of the regatta and had three other top-10 results in qualifying for the medal race but also had a handful of blowouts in the 60-boat fleet which adversely affected his overall standing.

Starting the day in 16th, Meech banked a fifth and sixth in last night's racing to qualify for the double points medal race in 10th and will be looking for a positive result to finish his regatta.

"It was a much better day for me today," he said. "I managed to come away with a five and a six in fantastic sailing conditions - sunny, not warm, but 10-15 knots and some nice waves.

"In the races I managed to get pretty good starts and then didn't take too many risks and came away with a couple of pretty good results. I scraped into the medal race. I can't really move up much, unfortunately, but it's nice to be in there after such a horrendous day yesterday."

Fellow Kiwi Andrew McKenzie couldn't maintain his run of good results, finishing 14th and 28th in last night's races to finish the regatta in 15th. The 21-year-old showed his potential earlier in the week, however, winning his first World Cup race and backing that up with a second.

"We had glamour sailing conditions today but unfortunately a few mistakes at key moments cost me a lot and I was unable to make any progress on the leaderboard," he said. "Plenty to work on in the next few weeks before the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Holland."

Six classes were decided overnight and the 49er pair of Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey were the only Kiwis involved in medal races. They finished seventh in the final race of the regatta to finish 10th overall, which was a decent return after a poor start to the event.

New Zealand results after day five of the World Cup regatta in Hyeres, France, overnight (NZT):

Laser (out of 60)

10th - Sam Meech 26 6 1 14 30 19 28 (34) 5 6 - 135 points

15th - Andrew McKenzie 9 18 (46) 42 31 1 2 11 14 28 - 156 points

49er (out of 28)

10th Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey (26) 18 10 9 9 25 2 6 14 20 9 11 14 - 147 points

16th - Isaac McHardie and William Mckenzie

​Nacra 17 (out of 29)

13th - Olivia Mackay and Micah Wilkinson

Finn (out of 34)

29th - Brendan McCarty 24 (32) 30 22 25 26 30 21 29 29 236 points