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William Pitt SIR

Tornado Worlds at Takapuna, New Zealand - Overall

by Jodie Bakewell-White 1 Mar 2008 07:04 GMT 25 February - 1 March 2008

Bundock claims his sixth Tornado World Championship

Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby of Australia have been crowned Tornado World Champions for 2008 after racing was abandoned on the final day of the regatta due to heavy rain and strong north easterly winds in Takapuna, North Shore City, Auckland. It is Bundock's 6th world title in the Tornado having won in 2006, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 1998.

As predicted Takapuna Beach is being buffeted by 25-30 knot winds and breaking waves, with low visibility on the race course on what would have been the final day of competition at the Tornado World Championships in this Olympic year. Competitors packed the club house to await a final decision for organisers which came at 12:45 to abandon racing for the day and close the championship.

Despite a 14th and a 23rd on the first day of racing the Aussies fought back and concluded the regatta five points clear of second place. Darren Bundock reflected today on how things looked for them at the end of day one.

"After the first day we actually needed to sit down and have a look at the results, and we saw that only a few crews that hadn't had at least one bad race of a 14th plus," said Bundock.

"Then coming out the next day and getting two 2nds, it showed us that we could do it. We got a glimpse and that was all we needed."

His crew, Glenn Ashby agreed that things didn't look good after day one.

"That was a fairly big hole that we crawled down into after day one. But after that we just chipped away and chipped away. Our results over the last few regattas show that we are pretty consistent in a range of conditions and we know that Auckland and Takapuna was going to give us a range of conditions."

Canadian's Oskar Johansson and Kevin Stittle have impressed the Tornado fleet sailing with consistency throughout the event and winning the silver medal in a fleet that was stacked with the top 20 ranked Tornado sailors in the world. Not only have they qualified Canada for an Olympic berth they have also signalled to the fleet that they'll be serious medal contenders in China.

Also demonstrating consistency throughout the regatta was French pair Yann Guichard and Alexandre Guyader unfortunately having their poorest result in race eight which turned out to be the final race of the event. Ultimately it cost them the silver medal by the narrowest of margins finishing on equal points with the Canadian's but having to settle for the bronze.

Canada, Austria, New Zealand and the Ukraine have earned Olympic qualification for their respective nations beating out Russia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Poland and Venezuela for the final four places which have been decided here at Takapuna.

It was Aaron McIntosh and Mark Kennedy who earned the place for New Zealand finishing the regatta in 12th place overall, well ahead of the next best placed kiwis Bruce Kendall and Blair Tuke who finished 26th. While national qualification is one step on the road to becoming part of the New Zealand Olympic sailing team for Qingdao in August, McIntsoh and Kennedy may yet have more work to do to persuade the New Zealand selectors that they have medal potential and should join the team as inclusion is not automatic.

Overall Results: (8 races, 1 discard)

PosSail NoHelmCrewR1R2R3R4R5R6R7R8Pts
1stAUS 8Darren BundockGlen Ashby14-2322811634
2ndCAN 7Oskar JohanssonKevin Stittle-211314197439
3rdFRA 71Yann GuichardAlexandre Guyader49131345-2339
4thGER 1Roland GaeblerGunnar Struckman3349-30182544
5thITA 257Francesco MarcoliniEdoardi Bianchi1171051(52 OCS)10246
6thNED 1Mitch BoothPim Nieuwenhuis7268-26224352
7thESP 1Fernando EchavarriAnton Paz11481123(52 OCS)6770
8thUSA 808John LovellCharlie Ogletree2529(52 DNF)31631371
9thFRA 1Xavier RevilCristophe Espagnon18121466(52 OCS)8872
10thFRA 5Billy BessonArnaud Jarlegan19-207456161673
11thAUT 3Roman HagaraHans Peter Steinacher1025121529(52 DNF)174
12thNZL 121Aaron McIntoshMark Kennedy178571013-241575
13thARG 1Santiago LangeCarlos Espinola15101312-178121080
14thGRE 7Iordanis PaschalidisKonstantine Trigonis6-24201695171285
15thGBR 447Andrew WalshEdward Barney5421-282210141490
16thUKR 11Pavlo KalynchevAndrey Shaufranyuk919-2421151511999
17thRUS 97Andrey KirilyukValery Ushkov16131513-33121819106
18thGBR 436Leigh McMillanWill Howden20219(52 DNF)1424911108
19thBEL 7Carolijn BrouwerSebbe Godefroid1211191027(52 OCS)1521115
20thGBR 7Rob WilsonMark Bulkeley1315112321-301322118
21stGER 7Johannes PolgarFlorian Spalteholz2722181420319(52 OCS)123
22ndESP 23Toni RivasFabian Escude346-36172572017126
23rdDEN 1Allan NorregaardMichael Risoer22181722111721(52 OCS)128
24thPUR 1Enrique FigueroaJorge Hernandez8172832311127(52 OCS)154
25thGBR 431John GimsonStuart Bithell26-29162718202325155
26thNZL 11Bruce KendallBlair Tuke31-3830247213118162
27thGER 5Tino MittelmeierNiko Mittelmeier2332(52 DNF)291623033165
28thAUT 8Thomas ZajacThomas Czajka29162531-32143224171
29thRUS 7Sergey DzhienbaevMaxim Semenov24-40272019253526176
30thNZL 1Rex SellersBrett Sellers322623-3324272227181
31stGBR 3Tom PhippsMarcus Lynch43(52 DNF)221928232628189
32ndCHN 58You Jia LuXiu Ke Chen3037342512(52 OCS)2829195
33rdBRA 7Bruno Di BernaldiMario Tinoco3327352629(52 OCS)2534209
34thAUS 322Brett BurvillRyan Duffield353332303426-3720210
35thAUS 13Rohan langworthyJack Benson25343118-40353832213
36thNZL 84Nigel WilliamsJeremy Stephenson383626-3937333330233
37thPOL 1Piotr KowalewskiMaciey Klosowicz37313334-42322938234
38thGER 17Eckart KaphengstRasmus Toepsch2830(52 DNF)52 DNC36343431245
39thNZL 73Dave ShawSusan Shaw36353737-38313636248
40thNZL 77Paul FrancisAaron Duncan4028(52 DNF)3641364135257
41stVEN 11Saba YamilCendiza Gonzalo393938-4135294037257
42ndAUS 300Damian FordMark Edmonds(52 DNS)41403545283939267
43rdCHN 1Bo LinShan Feng Yang44423938-48414240286
44thAUS 285Paul PetersonMatt Thackray42444444394045-46298
45thNZL 70David MeadChris Burgess-4843424047434642303
46thAUS 305Allan GambleKim Nicholas46464542-49374745308
47thGER/NZL 88/8Justus WolfJustus Maus45454346-51454443311
48thAUS/GBR 406Stephen MedwellStuart Offer41(52 DNF)4143463952 DNF52 DNC314
49thCHN 2An Jie LuXie Hai Zhuang47(52 DNF)484550424341316
50thNZL 88William CaunceAndrew Springford(52 DNF)474647443852 DNF44318
51stAUS 967Paul RaymondNicholas Raymond-4948474843444847325