#49er – New Zealanders Pete Burling and Blair Tuke have won the 49er European Championships, after dominating the final day of competition on the huge Atlantic swell off the coast of Portugal. Ireland's Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern finished 11th making steady progress up the fleet from an opening result in the 30s.
The Kiwis went into the day in 3rd overall, after coming off worse from a protest by Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen the previous evening. The Aussies were sailing upwind out of the leeward gate when the Kiwis, below the layline as they were dropping their gennaker, fouled the 2012 Olympic Champions. The Kiwis' subsequent disqualification dropped them to 3rd overall, 7 points behind the Aussies who assumed the championship lead.
The surprise silver medallists were Germany's Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme who have had a meteoric rise up the rankings this season. The up-and-coming young team won Kiel Week a few weeks earlier, and now with a 2nd place in Porto they hold a useful points lead in the German trials for Olympic selection for Rio 2016. This was the first of three regattas that the Germans are using for their trials process.
The bronze medal went to John Pink and Stu Bithell who bounced back from their disqualification last night with a great performance on the water, edging Outteridge and Jensen off the podium by just 2 points.
Today's victory marks an unbroken run of 18 regatta wins for Burling and Tuke who have been invincible since taking the Olympic silver medal at London 2012 behind arch-rivals Outteridge and Jensen.
Final top five:
1. Peter Burling / Blair Tuke, NZL, 32 points
2. Justus Schmidt / Max Boehme, GER, 44
3. John Pink / Stuart Bithell, GBR, 46
4. Nathan Outteridge / Iain Jensen, AUS, 46
5. Lukasz Przybytek / Pawel Kolodzinski, POL, 35
Results downloadable below
