An eighth place finish in the gold fleet of the 470 competition at the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships is a personal best for Tauranga sailor Jason Saunders.

The sailor claimed the accolade in Perth at the weekend with Auckland team mate Paul Snow-Hansen.

Jason Saunders and Paul Snow-Hansen.

Also achieving a personal best at the event was Sara Winther finishing 10^th in the Laser Radial gold fleet.

Yachting New Zealand Olympic programme manager Jez Fanstone says the achievement is well deserved.

'All of the team is not only delighted with their results today, but their progress over the last two years and the amount of work they put into preparing for this.”

He says both the 470 and Laser Radial campaigns are demanding and the sailors have had their ups and downs this year.
'They both bounced back from less than ideal Olympic test event results earlier this year.

'The 470 men and Sara have had career best results at this regatta, these are their highlights. 'Both campaigns know they have areas to be worked on and room for improvement and even better results are yet to come.”
He says to achieve these overall places at Fremantle is no small feat, especially when considering the calibre of competitors.

The boats that were on the start line this week are the same ones that will be winning the medals at the 2012 Olympics.
'Paul and Jason were the youngest and least experienced 470 team in the gold fleet, the top 40 in the world, and so they were boxing outside their weight category.”

Hamish Willcox, coach of Paul and Jason is pleased with their outcome at this regatta.
'They have come a long way in a very short time, they've only really been in the 470 for two and a half years and the exciting thing is we don't know how far they can raise the bar.

'The result of this performance is that they can realistically aim for a medal in 2012.”

Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships
New Zealand's Final Standings

470 Men
8th Gold Fleet - Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders (13, 10, 12, 16, 18, 14)
16th Silver Fleet- James Turner and Matthew Jones (9, 20, 11, 17, 7)
17th Silver Fleet - Luke Stevenson and Sam Bullock (4, 11, 17, 8, 41DNF)
29th Silver Fleet- Gareth Moore and Ben Goodwin (22, 31, 21, 29, 24)
32nd Silver Fleet- Mike Snow-Hansen and Derek Snow (31, 41DNF, 34, 27, 26)

Laser Radial
10th Gold Fleet - Sara Winther (4, 26, 15, 15, 15, 22)
38th Gold Fleet - Miranda Powrie (45, 8, 32, 39, 48)
4th Silver Fleet - Rachel Basevi (1, 8, 52DNS, 6)

Finn
21st Gold Fleet -Dan Slater (23, 7, 20, 19, 18)
28th Gold Fleet-Matt Coutts (26, 30, 18, 37OCS, 21)
10th Silver Fleet- Nik Burfoot (12, 4, 16, 17, 6)
21st Silver Fleet- Brad Douglas (23, 17, 17, 15, 37DNC)
28th Silver Fleet- Rob Coutts (32, 28 25, 19, 20)

RS:X Womens
26th Gold Fleet - Steff Williams (34, 27, 23, 21, 16)
1st Silver Fleet -Natalia Kosinska (1, 2, 9, 2, 1)
7th Silver Fleet- Justina Sellers (4, 17, 3, 7, 5)

Womens Match Racing
Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt
5 Wins, 3 losses- Stage 2 Round Robin