Tauranga sailor Sam Meech comes away from the ISAF World Cup regatta in Spain with his first top five finish at a senior level in a major European event.

Sam, who won a Youth Worlds gold medal just two years ago, finished this weekend ahead of more experienced New Zealand sailors in the Laser medal race at the World Cup event.

Sam Meech.

Andrew Murdoch finished sixth, Andy Maloney just behind in seventh and Mike Bullot in ninth.
Laser Radial campaigner Sara Winther, of the Takapuna Boating Club, won gold as did the women's 470 pair of Jo Aleh and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher.

Sara went into the medal race with a five point lead and needed a solid medal race to win. She placed second, but had enough points to take gold.

Jo and Bianca went in to the medal race with an eight point lead. The Kiwis crossed the line in fourth putting gold in the bag with a convincing 10 point gap to second place.
Tom Ashley won silver in the Men's RS:X event, setting him in a positive frame for the next event.

'From here, our little team travels back to Spain for a week of training and equipment testing in Murcia, then to Hyeres in France for the second World Cup event,” says Tom.
The 42nd Trofeo S.A.R. Princess Sofia MAPFRE in Palma was the third of seven regattas on the ISAF Sailing World Cup series.

The next is the Semaine Olympique Francaise at Hyeres France.

An even larger contingent of Kiwis is expected to be at this regatta on April 21-29.
Other regattas are in Medemblik in the Netherlands in May, Weymouth and Kiel in June.

Supporting coaches include Mark Howard, Mark Orams, Nathan Handley, Hamish Wilcox and Dave Robertson who have been in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, with the team.

New Zealand's Final Results

Men's RS:X (66 entries)
2nd Tom Ashley
20th Antonio Cozzolino

Laser Radial (78 entries)
1st Sara Winther

Women's 470 (49 entries)
1st Jo Aleh and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher

Men's 470 (84 entries)
18th Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders

Finn (83 entries)
4th Dan Slater
35th Matt Coutts

Women's RS:X (33 entries)
31st Stephanie Williams

Laser (127 entries)
4th Sam Meech
6th Andrew Murdoch
7th Andy Maloney
9th Mike Bullot
55th Josh Junior

Women's Match Racing
5th Koru Match: Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt