New Zealand's first Olympic Laser Medal - amongst others

Big excitement as Sam Meech won the Bronze medal in the Laser in Rio.

It's hard to believe we haven't had one before. But very nice for Sam that 4 years of effort have paid off so nicely.

Sam's 10 prelim race results indicated how tricky the conditions could be in Rio
19, 3, 5, 6, 14, 17, 13, 6, 12, then 1st (nice)
That placed him 3rd going into the single medal race, where a cool head delivered a 4th in the race and the Bronze medal. WhooHoo! - in a nail biting kind of way.

NZ sailors in other clases;

  • Blair Tuke and Pete Burling locked up the 49er Gold before the mdeal race - awesome.
  • 49erFX girls - Alex Maloney and Molly Meech get Silver. They peaked at the right time with a fantastically sailed regatta.
  • Womens 470 - Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie also get Silver. Filthy luck with a UFD and earlier lost protest put gold just beyond reach. But the points were so close they had to sail a very good medal race to get 2nd and not 5th.
  • Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders were 4th just 3 points shy of a Bronze medal - an amazing result really.
  • Finn sailor Josh Junior kept his cool to climb back to 7th overall after a patchy start to the regatta, then an impressive come back.
  • Mens 470 - Daniel Wilcox and Paul Snow-Hansen were 10th - after a 6th in the medal race.

So all NZ sailors made their top 10 medal race. Which is amazing in itself.

Then 4 crews go on to win a medal, playing a big part in NZ's biggest every medal tally at one Olympics. What a credit to all the sailors, coaches and the whole YNZ Olympic program.

All Rio Sailing Results on Google