Australia relinquishes Tornado World title to Argentina

by Event Media/Sail-World on 19 Apr 2004 Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola won the Tornado World Title 11 points ahead of the second placed Americans, John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree.

Australia's Darren Bundock and John Forbes, the defending World champions finished the event in third on countback.

The Australian sailing community was hoping to see the Australians defend their title successfully, which would have given Forbes an unprecedented seven World sailing titles and Bundy five. Forbes will retire from elite sailing after the Olympic Games in Athens to concentrate on the family business.

‘Winning is the result of hard work and much training, dedication, focus. It was our biggest dream: to win a World Championship in an Olympic class. You can not imagine how happy we are!’ said new Champions, Lange and Espinola.

White horses could be seen filling the bay of Mallorca since early on the final morning of the Championship.

A sou’wester was blowing at 16-18 knots and increasing as competitors entered the last day of competition fighting for not only a World Title, but some for a country Olympic qualification or a country Olympic nomination. Also at stake was the Youth World title.

All knew that today’s two races were crucial and a lot was expected from them.

Race 9 was started with 20 knots of wind, one General Recall and a clear start after that. The bulk of the fleet chose the left hand side and it proved to be the right direction to go. The wind strength increased (22-23 knots) as well as the swells and more than 15 boats did not finish the race due to the rough conditions and broken parts.

British Olympic representative Leigh McMillan/Mark Bulkeley won the race followed by French team Olivier Backes/Laurent Voiron and Spanish Fernando Echavarri/Anton Paz in third. Echavarri and Paz will sail in Athens. The French nomination has not been decided yet.

Race 10 was cancelled before starting as winds blew in excess of 25 knots and that is where the series ended, like many others in Europe this summer, early, due to heavy weather conditions.

The 2004 Youth World Champions are French Francois Gabart and David Romain, who managed excellent results in such a high level Regatta. They finished 21st overall.

‘Now we are going to sail the rest of the season even more motivated. We are very happy with our results’, told Gabart and Romain.

Not a good day for Slovenians Dusan Puh/Alan Biderman, who capsized and did not finish, which cost them an Olympic qualification. New Zealanders Aaron McIntosh/Mark Kennedy also failed to qualify, finishing six points behind the Brazilians, Mauricio Santa Cruz and Kiko Pelicano.

The Portuguese team of Diego Cayolla and Nuno Barreto in finishing 15th overall, won the Portuguese selection, so will represent the country in Athens. Their fellow countrymen, Hugo Rocha and Luis Brito finished 19th.

Finishing 10th overall, the Russian crew, Andrey Kirilyuk and Valery Ushkov, qualified their country and look like being the crew going to the Olympics.

Club El Arenal is hosting the Prize Giving Ceremony tonight, in time for most of the sailors to catch the ferry to Barcelona later and continue the journey to the French Olympic week in Hyeres. Their training for the Olympics has just begun.

Top three results:

1 ARG Santiago Lange/Carlos Espinola 39

2 USA John Lovell/Charlie Ogletree 50

3 AUS Darren Bundock/John Forbes 50

For results and pics: http://www.cnarenal.com/regata_clasificacion.php