Tauranga sailor Sam Meech won bronze in the Olympic laser class pushing off challenges from five-time Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt (BRA) and reigning world champion Nick Thompson (GBR).

It's Sam's first Olympics and New Zealand's first ever Laser class medal.

Tauranga Olympic medallist Sam Meech with his bronze medal.

The tough fought men's lightweight single-handed dinghy event was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1996.

While 25-year-old Sam was well placed to take the bronze, a trio of more senior sailors were ready to push Sam out of a podium finish if he didn't perform.

Sam finished fourth when a top five was all he needed to secure the bronze medal.

But as proven during the qualifying series Meech can deliver and he sailed a solid medal race to cross in 4th when a top five was all he needed today to secure the bronze medal.

'I knew I needed to get fifth or better to make sure I got the medal so I just tried to stay within a few boats of three or four of the other guys, so my plan was really just to have a good race and to get a good start,” says Sam.

'It more or less much went to plan, but obviously I was pretty nervous during the race.”

Looking back on his first Olympics Sam says: 'I was aiming to have a shot at getting a medal at the end of the week and so I'm pretty stoked to finish the fleet racing and I was in that position, and to finish it off was absolutely amazing.

'I'm really happy with how I sailed. There was only one race when things didn't go that well. So I'm really proud.”

Light winds in Rio this week pushed out the high-pressure medal race by 24 hours. Sam had to hold his nerve, and he concedes that wasn't easy.

'I really wish we could have raced yesterday – I was pretty nervous and I was really keen to get going, so it was pretty hard to go home and have to wait another day.”

The Laser class is the largest of the Olympic sailing fleets with 46 boats (from 46 nations) all vying for Olympic glory.

Sam was on the podium at Rio with Australia's Tom Burton, who was able to use today's double-points medal race to move up to gold, from Tonci Stipanovic who has won Croatia's first ever Olympic medal in sailing with silver. Local hero and Olympic legend Robert Scheidt won the medal race to finish 4th.