Tornado World Champions 2009 - Bundock and Ashby

by Patricia Kirschner on 5 Sep 2009 Tornado Worlds Racing Day 5 – Even though an early start was scheduled for the last day of the 2009 Tornado Worlds the wind did not arrive and racing was not possible.

As a result leaders Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby added another World Title to the several existing.

Bundock is now seven times Tornado World Champion, three of them with crew Glenn Ashby. They are also three times F18 World Champions and Glenn Ashby is six times A-Class World Champion. No shortage of multihull titles here!

Darren Bundock (AUS) commented this afternoon 'It has been a fantastic week of sailing and undoubtedly some of the best in my sailing career. Lake Garda is truly a special place for sailing with the cliff faces and picturesque scenery. The lake has not lived up to its reputation of strong wind this week but all the sailors have had a great time.

It’s still a fantastic feeling to win the Tornado Championships, its number seven now. I think it may be quite a while till some one beats that. This year was different, no Olympic or funding pressures we just sailed because we love the boat and had a great time.

This week has made it clear for me. I can announce my Olympic retirement, multihulls is my scene and love sailing. The 49er just does not do it for me.'

Glenn Ashby (AUS)

'A great week, yet a sad week for the Tornado Class to see an end of an era for the once Olympic multihull. We had fantastic sailing this week, it was nice to get back on the water and get the old team back together the first time since the Olympic medal race.

We have now won seven world sailing championships together and must be close to being Australia’s most successful sailing team.'

Austrians Thomas Zajac and Thomas Czajka, second overall, had their best result ever in a Tornado World and are a promising young team.

'It is really great to be Vice World Champions. I had a really bad climbing accident in March and broke my back and ankles and spent 100 days in Hospital so for me it is a great triumph to be back sailing. It was a nice place to sail, but it’s a shame about the wind on the final days', says Thomas Czajka

'We knew that the weather forecast wasn’t good for the last two days. So we feel really lucky that we had at least a race yesterday and we got it right. It proved to be critical to our result.' says Greek Trigonis Konstantinos, taking the third position.

Carolijn Brouwer, 1998 ISAF Sailor of the Year, two times Laser Radial and two times Europe dinghy World Champion, and Jeroen Van Leeuwen (BEL) were fourth, followed by Russians Pavel Kalinchev and Sergey Dzhienbaev in fifth place.

'Four years ago I fell in love with Tornado sailing, this week I fell in love with Lake Garda. Although some difficult conditions, the RC did an excellent job in providing us with good fair racing. It was a great week.

‘I am very happy to come fourth in this Championship not having sailed the Tornado since the Olympics and sailing with a new crew Jeroen. It was a great combination and great fun', explains Carolijn, the retiring ITA President.

Roland Gaebler (GER), 2000 Sydney Olympics Bronze medallist and also the new elected ITA President:

'This Championship showed that we have an excellent mix of sailing legends and youth talent. We are very happy to see Thomas and Thomas (AUT) Vice World Champions behind the world’s best multihull sailors Darren and Glenn. But also seeing so many mixed teams shows that Tornado sailing is a sport for all'