Aussie onslaught

Sydney silver medallists Darren Bundock and John Forbes victorious in the Tornado Worlds

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."

Final results
1, Darren Bundock/John Forbes, AUS (2,(6),1,1,2,5,1,4) 16 pts
2, Olivier Backes/Laurent Voiron, FRA (3,3,3,2,3,3,2,(7)) 19 pts
3, Mitch Booth/Herbert Dercksen, NED ((12),1,7,3,1,2,8,6) 28 pts
GBR
13, Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley (28,7,12,(DNF),4,6,17,14) 89 pts
14, Hugh Styles/Adam May (15,13, (OCS),16,5,14,16,21) 100 pts
15, Rob Wilson/Will Howden (7,24,23,14,17,(26),5,16) 105 pts
26, Steven Lovegrove/Martin Sellars (31,17,20,31,23,19,26,(DNF)) 166 pts
42, Matthew Eeles/Marcus Lynch (33,35,(OCS),21,41,34,DNF,DNS) 280 pts
44, Leo Farrow/Tris Lamb (42,39,(DNC),44,44,43,41,36) 290 pts