Kiwis win Gold, Gold, Silver in Olympic Skiff World Champs in France

by Richard Gladwell on 2 Oct 2013
New Zealand crews have swept the 49er and 49erFX World Championships winning the Gold Medal and World Championship in both events. A second New Zealand crew placed second in the 49er class, winning the Silver Medal.

Both classes are the Olympic skiff, used for the Mens and Womens events in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Blair Tuke and Peter Burling, Silver Medalists in the 49er class in the 2012 Olympics, added the World Championship to their already successful season, while a new crew of Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski won the Silver Medal - in their best performance in the class to date.

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech dominated the 49erFX, the new Olympic womens skiff, winning the inaugrual World Championship in the class. Second in the 49erFX was a Brazilian crew skippered by Martine Grael, daughter of Torben Grael, a multiple Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion in the Star Class keelboat.

The placings for the top crews remained unchanged from the penultimate day of the regatta. The final day of the series comprised a series of Medal races amongst the top ten crews in each class - which did not change the result, indicating the dominance they enjoyed in the earlier stages of the regatta.

The final day of the 2013 Seiko 49er & 49erFX Worlds in Marseille started dramatically with a huge thunderstorm, forcing changes in the race schedule in the lower grade finals of the regatta.

For full results click here