Better race for Meech

Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sam Meech had to wait until the third race of the laser sailing competition to really make his mark.

Meech, 30, finished 19th in the first race today, the same placing as he secured in yesterday's opening race of the competition. The Aucklander then turned in a much-improved showing for eighth in the second race today.

That means that in his three races in the regatta his finishing placings have been 19, 19, 8. Discarding his worst performance, he has 27 points, which places him 17th in the fleet of 35, well behind the overall leader, Finland's Kaarle Tapper, who has 5 points.

Meech made little impression in the first race today, but it was a different story when the boats lined up a second time.

He began well and at one point led the race. He was always in the thick of it, but paid a price for one call that backfired and dropped down to 14th. To his credit he had climbed back to 8th by the finish, though still 1min 42s behind the winner, Jesper Stalheim of Sweden.