Burling/Tuke gear up for 49er and 49erFX World Championships

Burling, Tuke and others gear up for 49er and 49erFX World Championships

The up-coming 2013 49er and 49erFX World Championships will feature five New Zealand entries including Olympic silver medallists Peter Burling and Blair Tuke; racing starts next Tuesday, 24th September and runs over six days in Marseille, France.

With over 150 entries across the Men’s 49er fleet and Women’s 49erFX fleet more than 300 sailors, including ten New Zealanders, are converging on the French venue. The kiwi sailors are:

Men’s 49er -98 boats
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL Sailing Team)
Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (NZL Sailing Team)
Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock

Women’s 49erFX – 52 boats
Alex Maloney and Molly Meech
Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland

Silver medal specialists Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (2011 and 2012 49er World Championship silver and 2012 Olympic silver) will be looking to go one better this year. Fresh from victory at the inaugural Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in San Francisco earlier this month Burling and Tuke also won the 49er European Championship title in June at Denmark.

Tuke says; “We have been very careful in making sure that our batteries are recharged after the super busy month in San Francisco, but now it's time to start ramping it up for the regatta next week.”

“This is the largest 49er event since 2001 and the fleet is of a really high standard,” he continues. “The British have some really strong teams as usual, the French will be good on their home waters and Nath and Goobs [Olympic champions, Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen from Australia] are here for their first 49er event since the Olympic Games.”

Organisers have named an experimental format including theatre style racing on the final day (full details here). Tuke says that has little impact on their game plan; “The format is what it is, it doesn't really change what we do. We showed at the European Champs that we perform well under pressure so we get quite excited by the medal races. But we need to make it there first though!”

“We don't go into these things aiming for 2nd place, but we will just give next week our best shot and see what happens... If we sail well we will be towards the front of the fleet.”

Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech is the Kiwi crew to watch in the 52-strong Women’s 49erFX fleet; they are currently ranked world number one. Medalling at all three major internationals they’ve attended so far in 2013 their major rivals include Nielsen and Olsen of Denmark and Grael and Kunze of Brazil.

Racing starts on Tuesday 24th September and runs for six days with the world titles for the Olympic skiff classes set to be decided on Sunday 29th September. Yachting New Zealand will report on the progress of the New Zealand sailors once racing gets underway.

Links:
Regatta website
Event Schedule, Overview and Media Coverage information

Yachting New Zealand website
NZL Sailing Team on Facebook
NZL Sailing Team sailor profiles

About the NZL Sailing Team
NZL Sailing Team includes New Zealand’s top Olympic campaigners who share the ultimate goal to win Olympic medals for New Zealand at the Rio Games in 2016.

NZL Sailing Team sailors all started out at grass roots yacht clubs around the country and with commitment, dedication and drive have risen to be world class athletes; they work hard in the gym, train long hours on the water and are supported by great coaches.

ENDS

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