Peter Burling and Blair Tuke won the 2016 World Championships in the 49er, which ended yesterday, 14 February, in Clearwater, Florida. They have now won 23 49er regattas in a row, including the last four World Championships. The last time they were “beaten” was at the 2012 London Olympics, where they took the silver medal behind Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain “Goobs” Jensen, now with Artemis Racing.
Outteridge and Jensen were in second place going into the final, double points medal race in Clearwater, but an OCS (false start) in the medal race dropped them back to sixth place.
Emmett Lazich coaches Outteridge and Jensen, and believes they can win in Rio. It was Lazich who helped plan their buildup to the London Olympics. Burling and Tuke trained together with Outteridge and Jensen under Lazich’s guidance. He knew it would be a risk, possibly helping Burling and Tuke “too much” but the plan worked perfectly in 2012 with gold for the Aussies and silver for the Kiwis in London. Outteridge and Jensen went on to sail for Artemis in San Francisco in 2013 while Burling helmed the winning Kiwi boat in the 2013 Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, with Tuke in the crew. Here’s Lazich in a video interview by Andy Rice during the Worlds last week.
Outteridge clearly has more demands on his time from Artemis than Burling does from ETNZ. He and Jensen should be able to prepare for Rio from May until the Games, in August. Even so, Burling and Tuke are the clear favorites.
We sailing fans get to witness a great rivalry being played out in the America’s Cup and in the Olympics. Let’s keep an eye on this!
