George Lee Rush and Seb Menzies have added another championship to their collection.
After winning the 49er European Championships in 2025, the Kiwi sailing pair have become the youngest-ever world champions in the class, with the 21-year-olds sealing the title in dramatic fashion in France.
Coming into thefinal race of the regatta, the second of a two-race medal series, the Kiwi duo had a five-point buffer and needed to finish fifth or better to claim the championship.
But things got off to the worst possible start for the pair when they crossed the line early and were forced to restart.
At the back of the fleet of 10 in testing conditions, Lee Rush and Menzies had to adapt as the crews from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Poland all had the opportunity to snatch the world championship title from their grasp.
After working their way into fifth, the Kiwis fell back to ninth following a difficult windward leg ahead of the final downwind sprint.
Opting for an aggressive manoeuvre at the final mark to break away from the fleet, they found themselves in good pressure and clawed their way back up the leaderboard.
It proved to be a decisive decision, as they crossed the finish line fifth to secure the championship.
George Lee Rush and Seb Menzies won the 49er World Championships in France. Photo / Sailing Energy
“We left it until the very last minute,” Lee Rush said. “That final gybe set away from the fleet made the difference, but even halfway down the last run, we still weren’t counting anything.
“I actually said to Seb, ‘Just make sure we don’t fall out [of the boat] or do anything stupid now.’ We didn’t know we’d won until we crossed the line.”
That race was almost the polar opposite of the first in the medal series, which saw the Kiwis get into clear air early and claim the win after going into the medal races two points ahead at the top of the fleet.
Menzies will now travel to Cagliari, off the Italian island of Sardinia, to link up with Team NZ for the first preliminary regatta of the campaign this weekend.
Menzies will be port helm on the Team NZ A-team boat, working with new recruit Iain Jensen on trim, with skipper Nathan Outteridge and Andy Maloney at helm and trim on starboard. Racing starts on Friday morning (NZT).
Outteridge, himself a four-time 49er world champion sailing for Australia and three of those being together with Jensen, praised the work Menzies had been putting in on both campaigns.
“Over the last six to nine months, he’s been involved in our programme heavily, but any minute we haven’t been out sailing with him, he’s been on the water sailing in the 49er,” Outteridge told the Herald.
“It’s awesome to see their hard work paying off and hopefully he can bring some momentum from there to us here and we can have a good result this weekend.”
The result is the latest in a good run of success for New Zealand in the class.
It comes after Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie claimed silver in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, which was the country’s fourth medal in as many Games following Peter Burling and Blair Tuke’s two silvers and a gold across London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
Lee Rush and Menzies’ triumph is New Zealand’s first world title in the class since Burling and Tuke won in Geelong in 2020.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
