Tauranga sailors take bronze

Tauranga 49er sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won a bronze medal in the fifth round of the Sailing World Cup regatta in Medemblik, the Netherlands.
Sailing predominantly in strong winds and choppy conditions, the New Zealanders moved into medal contention as the regatta progressed and secured the podium finish yesterday.
With a relatively wide points spread among the top three, Burling and Tuke had little chance to climb further up the ladder, particularly when racing was cancelled on the penultimate day, but they gave it their best shot in yesterday's medal race, in which they finished eighth.
Britain's Steve Morrison and Ben Rhodes won the gold medal, while Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, of Australia, won silver.
"After opening up a nice lead they capsized on the second downwind near the top mark - they were in a lull and were then hit by a gust," said Richard Burling, Peter's dad.
"It cost them a bit as they had their gennaker up."
A fleet of 39 were competing in the 49er - a high-performance skiff - in Medemblik, with an even larger fleet expected to be at the next round of the World Cup in Weymouth, England.
Burling and Tuke's giant strides in just two years in a 49er were recognised recently when they were awarded an Olympic Solidarity scholarship worth US$29,000 ($35,550), allowing them to focus full-time on sailing.
Such progress seemed a long way off when the two sailors, both rookies in the 49er boats, joined forces at the end of 2008.
"We sat down and mapped out some targets back then and there were some pretty big jumps to go through - basically, from not racing a 49er before to being among the top guys in the world," said Tuke.
Tuke, 21, and Burling, 20, embarked on their first European campaign in 2009, placing 26th in the 49er world championships in Italy and 16th in a grade-one event in Germany.
They finished 17th at the 2010 world champs and managed a second at the prestigious Medemblik regatta.
In December last year at Sail Sydney, they beat reigning world champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, becoming just the second crew to beat the highly rated Australians.
A week later, at Sail Melbourne, they finished a narrow second to current world No1 pairing Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch (Austria). They are currently ranked 13th, down from a high of eighth in December.
The 49er is a design class that first saw competition at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Along with carbon masts and two trapeze wings, the traditional spinnaker pole is replaced with an asymmetrical spinnaker system which comes straight out of the bow.
After Dan Slater and Nathan Handley competed at the Sydney Olympics in the 49er class, finishing eighth, New Zealand did not send a boat to Athens or Beijing. Burling competed in the 470s at Qingdao (as the youngest Olympic sailor in New Zealand history), then decided to combine with Tuke in the physically challenging class.