Burling and Tuke win again

Tauranga's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won the 2015 49er World Championship in Argentina today making it three consecutive world titles in the Olympic skiff class and extending their unprecedented unbeaten run to 22 victories in a row.

In the women's 49erFX New Zealand's Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech finished 8th overall.

Burling (24 years old) and Tuke (26 years old) had this victory in the bag with a race to spare after opening an unassailable 29 point gap after three morning races over the Alonso brothers from Spain, who struggled today.

The kiwis, described by commentators as being in a class of their own, placed 4th in the medal race to seal the deal and end the 16-race regatta 34 points ahead of anyone else.

'We're absolutely stoked to take another title,” Peter says. 'This one has been a really tough week and I think both Blair and myself are pretty tired now which shows how tough it's been, but we are really stoked to take another title and I'm sure it will set in over the next couple of hours.”

Today the gold fleet sailed three finals races in the morning in which Peter and Blair placed 13th, 8th and 8th.

'We didn't sail super well today, which we were a bit annoyed about, but at the same time the guys that were close to us sailed worse so we ended up with a pretty huge lead again which is really nice,” Blair says.

'It's really nice to win our third world title, and all in a row,” Blair adds.

It was a good day for the reigning Olympic champion crew of Outteridge and Jensen who sailed themselves back into medal contention during the morning to edge out the Spanish for the silver medal.

For Peter and Blair, taking the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games has motivated the pair that is unrelenting in their focus and drive towards an end goal to go one better and win Olympic Gold at Rio 2016.

Since being beaten by Outteridge and Jensen in London, (who are also campaigning towards Rio 2016), the NZL Sailing Team crew has won every 49er event they've sailed.

Earlier this month the pair took out the highest award a sailor can receive in recognition of outstanding achievements in the world of sailing, named ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year for 2015.

Blair says, 'Being named ISAF Rolex Sailor of the Year last week was pretty special and we had our heads down concentrating on this trying to get the best prepared we could, so we'll sure enjoy it with our coach Hamish [Willcox] and the rest of the kiwis here. Then we'll look forward to getting back to New Zealand and sharing it with family and friends.”

The award is decided by a vote which saw them pitted against sailors across all disciplines of the sport including Ian Walker, (skipper of the Volvo Ocean Race winning entry), Giles Scott (GBR's latest phenomenon in the Finn class) and Loick Peyron (off-shore sailing superstar), and the Kiwis were humbled to be announced the winners.

Scheduling of events in the twelve months leading into the 2016 Olympic Games means that Peter and Blair will defend this world title in less than three months with the 2016 49er and 49erFX World Championships taking place in mid-February in Florida, USA.

Before then the pair return home for the New Zealand summer and will attend the 2015 Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards in Auckland next Friday.

Peter says, 'We've got a few months at home over the summer now so it's going to be great . It's a cool time of year to be back in NZ and we really enjoy being in NZ over the summer so we're really looking forward to getting home.”

Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech have finished eighth in the 49erFX World Championship. In today's morning races the kiwi women placed 2nd, 14th and 19th to go into the 49erFX medal race lying ninth overall improving to eighth after finishing third in the medal race.

'I think everyone was a bit up and down, quite a big mixture of people winning races,” says Alexandr. 'The fleet is getting tougher and it was really good competition out there.”

Molly adds, 'Moving on from here obviously Rio's the big goal for next year.”

'And the buildup events like the Worlds in Clearwater and then Hyeres, so trying to get on the podium in those events.”

Giulia Conti and Francesca Clapcich (ITA) took overall victory in the 49erFX and their first world title after a very close battle with defending champions Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA). These two close rivals entered the medal race on equal points and went on to finish first and second on the water in a grand finale in Argentina this afternoon.

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1 comment

Overit

Posted on 22-11-2015 19:59 | By overit

You do us proud boys. Bring home the America's Cup soon.


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