Meech bounces back

Sam Meech got New Zealand’s Olympic sailing campaign under way today with two races in the laser section.

Meech, 25, finished 19th of the 46 starters in the first race and improved markedly with a third placing in the second race.

At the end of the day he was in sixth place on 22 points. Croatian Tonci Stipanovic and Argentinian Julio Alsogaray were first equal on six points.

Meech, who sailed in the 2012 London Olympics as well, said conditions were really tricky today.

“I had fantastic starts, which was great because that was my aim for the day,” he said, “but the outer loop of our course was insane.

“It was between 5 and 15 knots and it was really tricky to tell what was going to happen next.

“It’s fair to say I was pretty nervous before the first start, but as soon as the start gun goes it’s business as usual.”