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:
| Pos | Helm | Crew | Nat | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | Darren Bundock | John Forbes | AUS | 2 | (6) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 16 |
| 2 | Olivier Backes | Laurent Voiron | FRA | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | (7) | 19 |
| 3 | Mitch Booth | Herbert Dercksen | NED | (12) | 1 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 28 |
| GBR |
| 13 | Leigh McMillan | Mark Bulkeley | GBR | 28 | 7 | 12 | (DNF) | 4 | 6 | 17 | 14 | 89 |
| 14 | Hugh Styles | Adam May | GBR | 15 | 13 | (OCS) | 16 | 5 | 14 | 16 | 21 | 100 |
| 15 | Rob Wilson | Will Howden | GBR | 7 | 24 | 23 | 14 | 17 | (26) | 5 | 16 | 105 |
| 26 | Steven Lovegrove | Martin Sellars | GBR | 31 | 17 | 20 | 31 | 23 | 19 | 26 | (DNF) | 166 |
| 42 | Matthew Eeles | Marcus Lynch | GBR | 33 | 35 | (OCS) | 21 | 41 | 34 | DNF | DNS | 280 |
| 44 | Leo Farrow | Tris Lamb | GBR | 42 | 39 | (DNC) | 44 | 44 | 43 | 41 | 36 | 290 |
For full results log on to the official event website; www.aclass-tornado-worlds2002.org