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Tornado Worlds at Massachusetts, USA Overall

by Royal Yachting Association 29 Sep 2002 13:56 BST

Aussies take gold medal at Tornado world championships

Martha's Vineyard provided some much needed sunshine for everyone on the final day of racing at the Tornado world championships, along with 18-20 knots of breeze for the first race of the day. This died shortly after the first race, but filled back in at around 12-13 knots for the final race.

2000 Olympic silver medallists Darren Bundock/John Forbes from Australia sailed the best day in the fleet, scoring their third bullet of the championships, followed up with a fourth place finish, to take the world title and gold medal by three points from the 2002 European champions Olivier Backes/Laurent Voiron of France. The bronze medal went to Mitch Booth/Herbert Dercksen from the Netherlands.

Sadly for the team GBR sailors, they could not do what was needed on the final day to move up the scoreboard. Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley were the highest placed Brits, adding a seventeenth and a fourteenth to their score, to put them in thirteenth place overall. One place behind were team mates Hugh Styles/Adam May who finished in fourteenth place, with Rob Wilson/Will Howden moving up from twentieth overall to fifteenth position after scoring their best results of the regatta in race one of the final day, a fifth place.

May commented, "we felt we have had probably our worst event of the year. We have already made plans for the winter, and we'll fit in a lot more racing and speed work than we managed to last year. I think the entire British squad suffered from just training together last winter, we need to make sure we do enough training with fast foreign teams to keep track of what is going on."

RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park commented, "With the Tornado class undergoing a period of rapid development, it is clear that the GBR teams are off the pace at the moment. The difficult conditions at this event have not helped, but we will need to carefully review and analyse these championship results to ensure our sailors are able to get back into the leading group in this class as they have been previously."

Overall Results:

PosHelmCrewNatR1R2R3R4R5R6R7R8Pts
1Darren BundockJohn ForbesAUS2(6)11251416
2Olivier BackesLaurent VoironFRA3332332(7)19
3Mitch BoothHerbert DercksenNED(12)173128628
GBR
13Leigh McMillanMark BulkeleyGBR28712(DNF)46171489
14Hugh StylesAdam MayGBR1513(OCS)165141621100
15Rob WilsonWill HowdenGBR724231417(26)516105
26Steven LovegroveMartin SellarsGBR31172031231926(DNF)166
42Matthew EelesMarcus LynchGBR3335(OCS)214134DNFDNS280
44Leo FarrowTris LambGBR4239(DNC)4444434136290

For full results log on to the official event website; www.aclass-tornado-worlds2002.org