Sail for Gold Regatta at Weymouth - Overall
by Yachting New Zealand 14 Jun 2013 17:30 BST
9-13 June 2013
New Zealand featured twice in the top four of the Laser fleet at Sail for Gold
Sam Meech has secured his first EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup victory winning gold in the Laser class at the 2013 Sail for Gold Regatta which has just wrapped up in Weymouth, England. Andy Maloney finished just outside the podium places in 4th.
After opening the five day series with two race wins Meech has continued to dominate never relinquishing the lead in the 33-strong fleet.
"I'm really happy, it's been a really long trip over here, and it's awesome to end on a high," says Meech. "I just had really good form, and I really like Weymouth, I've had good results here in the past, so I've really enjoyed the week."
Going into today's medal race the NZL Sailing Team campaigner looked good for gold with a monster 19 point leading margin, but he needed to get around the course and stay out of trouble to seal the deal. Placing 7th in the ten boat medal race secured him the overall win.
"I was pretty confident, I had a really good lead so all I had to do was finish the race so I just made sure I wasn't over the start line and got on with it."
22 year old Meech is yet another young talent originating from the Tauranga Yacht & Powerboat, making his mark early by medalling twice for New Zealand at the ISAF Youth World Championships with bronze in 2008(Denmark) and then gold in 2009 (Brazil).
For Andy Maloney this adds another excellent result to an already stellar season in which he has won gold at ISAF World Cup Palma, Gold at Eurosaf Champions Sailing Cup Garda and Bronze at Eurosaf Champions Sailing Cup Holland (Delta Lloyd Regatta).
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