Sailors eyeing medals

Several New Zealand crews moved firmly into medal contention today.

Laser sailor Sam Meech had 12^th and 1^st placings to find himself third with just tomorrow’s medal race remaining.

He said he was very pleased with his position going into the final race. “I’m really stoked, though I’m kind of regretting those 10 points I lost on the third day,” he said. “But that’s sailing – you have good races, you have bad races.”

Blair Tuke and Peter Burling still lead the 49er men after an onerous day of racing.

The 49ers raced four times and the New Zealanders finished 5^th, 2^nd, 8^th and 6^th and still lead in the overall standings. However, The Germans are breathing down their necks.

“We didn’t feel like we sailed that well, but to come away from it with four low scores means we’re really happy,” Tuke said.

“It was a tough day. With four races, it was a big chunk of fleet racing so, like we’ve been saying, it was really solid just to keep ticking away.

“It was certainly not as pretty as yesterday, but we’re really happy with it.”

Burling said the conditions were a lot more consistent. “You only had one shot to get it right and if you were behind halfway up the first beat you were pretty deep.

“We were really happy, from where we were in a few of the races, to get some low scores on the board and to keep it pretty clean.”

Josh Junior, who has had a mixed time of it in the finn contest, recorded 18^th and 2^nd today to leave himself 13^th overall.

“It was up and down – one really good, one really bad,” he said.

“There’s one more day of racing tomorrow. Hopefully I can get into the top 10 and make the medal race. Tomorrow’s a big day.”

The 49er women – Molly Meech and Alex Maloney - had to get through four races and were on top of their game, recording 4^th, 4^th, 5^th and 1^st.

They lifted themselves to second equal in the overall standings.

Meech said they had a consistent day and that winning the last race was a really cool way to finish it off.

Maloney said she was pleased with their teamwork with and that they were gelling well.

“There are probably eight girls who could potentially medal and a lot of the others are really pushing hard, so it’s really good racing,” she said.

The other New Zealand crew in action was the nacre mixed. Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders had 4^th and 12^th finishes and now find themselves fourth in the standings with 51 points. The nacre mixed leader board is very bunched – the Australians, who lead, are on 46 – so there’s a lot to play for.