2001 Tornado World Championships.

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Event Report by Nigel Cherrie:

 

STYLES AND MAY RACE TO BRONZE MEDAL - Great Britain's top performing sport at last September's Sydney Olympic Games claimed its first podium position of the new four-year cycle yesterday as Hugh Styles and Adam May won the Bronze medal at the Tornado World Championships at Richards Bay in South Africa.

In under two years, Team Styles and May, both members of the World Class Performance sailing squad, have gone from eighth overall at the 2000 world championships to sixth at the Sydney Olympics to the Bronze medal at the 2001 world championships.

Although as of March 1st the class will change configuration and become the Tornado Sport, with a new bigger mainsail plus an extra trapeze and a gennaker, the duo have proved they are an emerging force in a class that has been dominated by a select few names for several years.

Before yesterday's deciding final two races, Styles and May were provisionally third overall, one point adrift of Olympic Bronze (1992) and Silver medallist (1996) Mitch Booth (Netherlands) with Sydney Olympic champion Roman Hagara (Austria) in turn one point behind them.

The penultimate race (series race eight) got underway in 13-14 knots of wind, which was considerably more fickle than the Indian Ocean breeze the crews had been sailing in all week as they had to contend with 7-8 knot 'holes' of pressure around the course.

Whilst Booth was over the start line early after trying some pre-start match racing, Team Styles and May maintained their strong starting ability and were fighting for second alongside Roman Hagara with Sydney Silver Medallists Darren Bundock and John Forbes (Australia) leading the 30 boat fleet.

Andreas Hagara (brother of Roman) managed to take advantage of the patchy conditions to jump up to second position by the finish with Roman Hagara third and Styles fourth. Booth could only manage to climb back to seventh which elevated Styles and May to equal second (on points) alongside the Olympic Gold Medallist, Roman Hagara, with one race to go.

All three medal contention crews stuck close to each other for the final start. After an even first leg, Bundock and Forbes led at the first windward mark with Roman Hagara second, Booth third and Styles and May fourth.

The positions stayed the same for two laps but with Mitch Booth covering Styles and May, Andreas Hagara moved up to third position on the final windward leg. The fleet order stayed the same to the end with Styles and May knowing they had done enough as they crossed the line to secure their first podium finish together.

"It was all very stressful doing the maths today as it was very close before we went out and even tighter after the second race but we came here to get a medal and we achieved it," explained a relieved Adam May (from Exmouth in Devon) after racing.

"It's about time," reflected helmsman Hugh Styles (from Hamble in Hampshire). This is his first significant podium finish since he won the Laser European championships in Portugal in 1997, joking "We're pretty over the moon, I just wish it was the Olympics!"

"It was great for us to sail well and consistently and to our potential throughout the whole regatta. We've proved we can win races and when the pressure has been on we've upped our game. Okay, we didn't get the Silver medal here but there was a lot on between three boats to do that and we were fighting hard with a Silver medallist from 1996 and the Gold Medallist from 2000 but even with our comparable lack of experience we've shown the future is potentially bright".

Looking forward to the future and the new Tornado Sport, Hugh added: "We've got a lot of boat tuning and training to do now with the new boat but we're looking forward to the new challenge and the extra entertainment that will bring".

"This is obviously a superb set of result for Team GBR, especially Hugh and Adam as it confirms their status as one of the world's leading Tornado crews which is really positive for the overall squad at the start of a new cycle. Hopefully they can continue this level of performance in the coming months with all the new changes to the class," commented RYA Olympic Development Squad Manager Stephen Park.

The crews will be back in the UK tomorrow (Monday 19th February).

 

SOUTH AFRICA; Richards Bay. Tornado World Championships Final Overall results after six days: (nine races with discards):

1, Darren Bundock and John Forbes (Australia)12pts

2, Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher (Austria) 23pts

3, Hugh Styles and Adam May (Great Britain) 26pts

British Placings:

7, Rob Wilson and Will Howden - 55pts

9, Leigh Mcmillan and Jo Hutchinson - 56pts

11, Steve Lovegrove and Martin Sellers - 92pts

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