Yachting: Sam Meech 'hurts' after fourth place finish at sailing world championships

Sam Meech. Photo / World Sailing.

Finishing fourth is never a nice feeling and it was particularly tough for Sam Meech after he started so well at the sailing world championships.

The Laser Olympic bronze medallist was second in today's medal race, lifting him one place in the overall standings, but it wasn't the result he had come to Aarhus for.

Meech was the form Laser sailor of the year, collecting silver medals at three regattas so far this year, and led the standings at the world championships heading into gold fleet racing.

A 34th in desperately fickle conditions in the first gold fleet race was "a bitter pill to swallow" and his issues were then compounded when he was disqualified in yesterday's race which realistically knocked him out of medal contention.

"It's my best worlds finish so I'm happy with that but I have felt this year I have had great form and had an opportunity to finish at least in the medals," Meech said. "I really came here trying my best to win.

"It hurts a little bit, especially after starting out so well. I had awesome form in the first three days and after that I just couldn't get the shifts right. I guess I will have to come back and try again next year."

There are still a handful of Kiwis competing in Aarhus, including Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn who will go into the 49er medal race in seventh and Alex Maloney and Molly Meech who are ninth in the 49erFX heading into their medal race.

Neither combinations have a chance of picking up a medal but, crucially, both have qualified the boat for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was the primary goal at these world championships.

Maloney and Meech have not matched their high expectations, having been among the favourites before the regatta, but Dunning Beck and Gunn have illustrated their growing potential.

The pair have been sailing together for little over a year and have already picked up medals at two international regattas, including silver at the World Cup in Hyeres.

They toiled away today, finishing 15th and 25th in their two races, but they weren't the only ones who struggled in the strong winds.

"It was pretty tough out there, really windy," Dunning Beck said. "Everyone was out of control at times and we struggled to get off the start line and up the first beat cleanly, so we battled our way around the course with the rest of the fleet.

"[Olympic qualification is] something that every country has to tick off the list so the earlier you can do that the better. Although we struggled today, we had a few good results earlier in the regatta so we are still in the hunt for some good competition tomorrow and we will just have to go out there and try to win it."

New Zealand has also qualified the Nacra 17 for Tokyo but both crews narrowly missed out on the top 10 medal race. Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson were 11th after a first and second in their last two races today, but couldn't quite overhaul the British pair in 10th.

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders were 12th, which was a meritorious result considering they had to pull out of the first two races of the regatta because of boat damage that left them in 51st after the first day.

Results and standings after the ninth day of the sailing world championships in Aarhus, Denmark, overnight (NZ time):

Laser (165 boats)
1st: Pavlos Kontides (CYP) 8 3 7 2 1 2 12 4 2 (14) 18 - 59 points
2nd: Matthew Wearn (AUS) 7 4 1 4 3 1 3 9 (14) 13 16 - 61 pts
3rd: Philipp Buhl (GER) 4 3 19 3 6 6 2 16 (22) 5 6 - 70 pts
4th: Sam Meech (NZL) 1 1 1 2 13 4 34 7 13 (56 DSQ) 4 - 79 pts
14th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 6 11 21 10 21 2 (32) 2 18 31 - 121 pts
28th: Andrew McKenzie (NZL) 6 4 31 17 5 12 37 (42) 21 - 153 pts
35th: George Gautrey (NZL) 18 14 8 17 21 8 26 32 (34) 15 - 159 pts
106th: Matthew Kempkers (NZL) 40 12 45 45 22 33 28 35 35 (46) - 296 pts
Laser Radial (119 boats)
1st: Emma Plasschaert (BEL) 5 7 1 (15) 9 3 11 7 11 2 10 - 66 pts
2nd: Marit Bouwmeester (NED) 3 2 11 (28) 16 4 14 11 1 8 - 75 pts
3rd: Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) 4 3 2 18 2 2 12 (44) 3 33 6 - 85 pts
40th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 31 18 41 10 12 29 42 25 (54) 8 - 216 pts
56th: Olivia Christie (NZL) 28 48 51 3 12 8 43 (57) 35 53 - 281 pts
106th: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) (58) 57 54 20 42 50 47 52 15 40 - 377 pts
Finn (90 boats)
1st: Zsombor Berecz (HUN) 13 8 6 (15) 10 5 3 9 7 7 2 - 70 pts
2nd: Max Salminen (SWE) 3 4 16 10 4 1 (21) 8 13 1 14 - 74 pts
3rd: Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) 14 1 3 3 (19) 6 18 12 4 11 4 - 76 pts
4th: Josh Junior (NZL) (25) 3 8 4 8 3 12 7 8 15 8 - 76 pts
10th: Andy Maloney (NZL) 6 13 5 5 11 13 (24) 1 22 6 20 - 102 pts
49er (86 boats)
1st: Sime Fantela / Mihovil Fantela (CRO) 6 8 3 1 (25) 15 11 1 4 2 12 2 - 62 pts
2nd: Tim Fischer / Fabian Graf (GER) 10 11 1 5 4 3 6 5 20 5 (21) 7 - 75 pts
3rd: Erik Heil / Thomas Ploessel (GER) 5 16 4 11 1 8 3 (27) 9 4 14 6 - 80 pts
7th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 8 2 1 2 9 9 20 3 17 16 15 (250 - 102 pts
18th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 7 18 14 5 7 1 15 8 1 22 (27) 22 - 121 pts
19th: Josh Porebski / Trent Rippey (NZL) 4 3 (25) 3 4 19 18 9 6 20 16 19 - 121 pts
49erFX (60 boats)
1st: Tanja Frank / Lorena Abicht (AUT) 7 2 (25) 9 6 4 12 6 1 7 1 16 - 71 pts
2nd: Sophie Weguelin / Sophie Ainsworth (GBR) 13 7 9 8 (19) 8 15 3 2 1 4 12 - 82
3rd: Annemiek Bekkering / Annette Duetz (NED) 3 (26) 8 4 3 5 1 20 11 8 3 19 - 85 pts
9th: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 5 13 6 6 11 4 (30) 19 4 18 18 7 - 111 pts
Men's 470 (64 boats)
1st: Kevin Peponnet / Jeremie Mion (FRA) 11 11 3 1 9 2 3 (24) 3 7 6 - 56 pts
2nd: Tetsuya Isozaki / Akira Takayanagi (JPN) 5 6 2 7 1 (25) 16 10 1 2 10 - 60 pts
3rd: Jordi Xammar Hernandez / Nicolas Rodriguez Garcia-Paz (ESP) 2 5 4 (18) 8 3 6 11 16 3 4 - 62
12th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) (25) 5 7 3 14 11 23 4 STP 15 12 - 94 pts
Women's 470 (47 boats)
1st: Ai Kondo Yoshida / Miho Yoshioka (JPN) (12) 1 3 6 2 5 6 - 23 pts
2nd: Camille Lecointre / Aloise Retornaz (FRA) 2 6 4 7 8 (36) 1 - 28 pts
3rd: Hannah Mills / Eilidh McIntyre (BGR) 9 14 1 1 5 3 (18) - 33 pts
35th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds Smith (NZL) (40) 39 34 26 34 19 24 - 175 pts
Nacra 17 (68 boats)
1st: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Marianna Banti (ITA) 1 1 1 (35 DSQ) 16 13 16 3 5 2 3 7 1 - 69 pts
2nd: Nathan Outteridge / Haylee Ooutteridge (AUS) 5 5 13 5 8 3 7 1 3 5 (18) 9 6 - 70 pts
3rd: Santiago Lange / Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG) 3 2 2 2 3 6 4 11 (35 UFD) 12 10 10 7 - 72 pts
11th: Olivia Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 4 7 (26) 6 8 21 18 23 14 15 1 2 - 126 pts
12th: Gemma Jones Jason Saunders (NZL) (35 DNF) 35 DNF 11 3 7 15 3 7 14 1 11 6 20 - 133 pts
Men's RS:X (76 boards)
1st: Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED) 2 1 (14) 1 5 8 5 5 7 6 5 6 - 51 pts
2nd: Kiran Badloe (NED) 2 11 1 5 3 14 7.6 RDG (17) 6 9 4 2 - 64.6 pts
3rd: Louis Giard (FRA) 1 7 1 14 6 (20) 7 14 15 8 2 4 - 79 pts
58th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) 23 26 31 21 30 (34) 19 15 6 - 174 pts
Women's RS:X (62 boards)
1st: Lilian de Geus (NED) 4 3 5 2 6 3 (9) 1 6 1 1 4 - 36 pts
2nd: Charline Picon (FRA) 14 11 6 1 2 1 5 10 10 3 13 (24) - 76 pts
3rd: Emma Wilson (GBR) 1 (16) 11 2 8 2 16 5 5 16 6 7 - 79 pts
55th: Veerle ten Have (NZL) 9 24 (29) 29 29 29 25 25 24 - 194 pts
Men's formula kite (61 boards)
1st: Nicolas Parlier (FRA) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (11) 1 2 (23 DCT) 1 3 8 1 6 - 29 pts
2nd: Guy Bridge (GBR) (2) (12) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 DNC 4 3 - 29 pts
3rd: Oliver Bridge (GBR) 1 (5) 2 2 1 2 1 1 (6) 1 1 1 1 7 2 8 - 31 pts
18th: Sam Bullock (NZL) 6 5 5 7 6 6 (23 DNC) 6 (11) 10 3 5 7 8 7 9 - 90 pts