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Sailing and study challenges for Massey Olympian

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Sailing and study challenges for Massey Olympian

Skimming at speed over the waters of Rio de Janiero’s harbour might sound exotic, but for world champion sailor and Massey University distance student Molly Meech, it is a serious endeavour.

Meech, 23, has been preparing to compete in her first Olympics, which start next month on the Atlantic waters of Rio de Janiero’s inner and outer harbours. It is also the first time her sailing category – the 49erFX women’s skiff – is part of the games.

Amid regular trips during the past three years to train with New Zealand’s 49erFX women’s skiff crew on Rio’s Guanabara Bay, she has also been studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies. She hopes to finish her degree through a final summer school paper this year.

Getting to know the sailing environment in Brazil, she has been with the Yachting New Zealand team based at a Yacht Club in Niterói across Guanabara Bay from the city of Rio de Janeiro. Her older brother Sam, also a Massey student, is competing in the men’s one-person dingy Laser event.

Long-term training in Rio has been essential, she says, because her sport relies on familiarity with local conditions, such as ocean and wind currents, as much as sailing technique, physical fitness and strength, and strategy. Like many coastal environments, conditions in Rio are variable but generally good, despite the busy shipping and ferry traffic of the inner harbour she and other sailors have to dodge during training, she says.

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Though she is used to the water conditions, she continues to admire the dramatic backdrop of the famous 30m tall statue of Jesus Christ on the summit of Mount Corcovado and the distinctive Sugarloaf Mountain protruding from the Atlantic Ocean at the entrance to Guanabara Bay.

Among successes this year, she and sailing partner Alexandra Maloney won the 2016 World Sailing Cup Miami Championship in February, and are Olympic-ready with a racing boat and a back-up boat.

Meech’s role is at the front of the boat doing the more physical tasks like pulling up the spinnaker, playing the mainsheet, trimming the kite and keeping the boat going as fast as possible for the conditions. Off the water she trains at the gym three times a week, and cycles and runs for cardio fitness.


The pair will compete in 14 half-hour races between August 12 and 18, rotating through several different courses around the harbour, and will be up against teams from 20 countries competing in this section.

Her time in Brazil has also been a cultural voyage of discovery. “We’ve had time to get to know Rio and to see a lot of the tourist attractions,” she says. Being based at the Rio Yacht Club means she and her team have befriended rival Brazilian Olympic sailing team, who have shown them some of their country including a hiking trip in the remote jungle areas of the island of Ilha Grande.

Although study has “taken a back seat” for part of the year, Meech says her BA has provided a rewarding alternative activity and she has appreciated being able to turn her mind to books instead of boats. “It’s been good to focus on something else other than sailing, and Massey has been so great in helping me to manage the demands of sport and assignment deadlines.”

A former pupil of Bethlehem College near Tauranga, she spent big chunks of her childhood sailing around the world with her family before entering competitive sailing in P-Class and Laser class.

Massey University has a record number of current and former student athletes competing in Rio next month. Of the 199-strong New Zealand team, Massey is connected to 84 athletes.

ends

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