Sam Meech will contest the Laser national championships at the Worser Bay Boating Club.
It might come as a surprise to learn Sam Meech, one of the world s best Laser sailors, has never won a national Laser title in this country. The 29-year-old collected bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics but doesn t often get the chance to line up at the nationals because of international commitments. He was on track to do it at the Manly Sailing Club in 2019 but missed the final day (when leading) to attend Andy Maloney s wedding. This year s Laser national championships starting at the Worser Bay Boating Club on January 22 is a rare chance for Meech to compete in a significant Laser regatta. He raced at last year s world championships in Melbourne in February, a key event in what he expected to be the buildup to the Tokyo Olympics, before the Covid-19 pandemic brought the postponement of the Games.
Staffan Persson set to take part in national laser champs, after launching a rocket into space.
Staffan Persson will casually launch a rocket into space on Saturday night, before trying to find his inner warp speed at next week s Laser national championships in Wellington. Persson, who hails from Stockholm in Sweden, has been in the country since mid-December (he got out of managed isolation on New Year s Eve) to oversee the launch of a small communications satellite being launched by Rocket Lab from their base at Mahia on the East Coast. They have a small 5-10 minute window to launch the rocket to ensure it follows a certain orbit in space, 1200km above Earth.