And into the lead...

Bundock and Ashby turn on the gas and take pole with one day to go at Tornado Worlds

• Solid day for Bundock and Ashby including a 16th to 6th recovery in race eight sees them move into the lead
• Previous leaders, the French team of Guichard and Guyander, have slipped to third, but are still in overall contention
• Britain's Olympic Tornado team are languishing in 18th
• A blustery final day is expected in Auckland on Saturday

ISAF ranked world number1’s Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby of Australia were untouchable in race seven of the 2008 Tornado World Championship and have now taken the overall lead going into the final day on Saturday.

On the breeziest day of the regatta so far, racing was fast and exciting with a 15-20 knot north easterly, choppy seas and sunny skies. Racing got underway on schedule at 1 o’clock and another two races were sailed; eight races are now completed with two more planned for tomorrow to decide the world title.

Rocketing off the start line in race seven the world ranked number one Australians pulled out to a comfortable lead which they maintained throughout the race crossing way ahead of Roland Gaebler and Gunnar Struckman of Germany who were 2nd.

The Aussies didn’t fair so well in race 8 and were in 16th place at the first mark rounding. Despite this they fought their way back to finish a respectable 6th which sees them take the overall lead after starting the day in second. With just two races remaining Bundock and Ashby are on 34 points and have a four point buffer over second place.

Leaders since day two, Guichard and Guyander of France slipped to now sit in 3rd place overall after a disappointing day on the water today. 5th in race 7 and then 23rd in race 8 they take a tumble from the lead but still have the title well in their grasp if they can out perform the other top contenders on the final day.

Both Guichard and Guyander, and Canada’s Oskar Johansson and Kevin Stittle are equal on 39 points just five points back from the new leaders.


At the other end of the fleet Australia's Allan Gamble & Kim Nicholas take it down the mine.

The on form Canadians who are yet to qualify their country for an Olympic spot brought home a two more solid race results today with a 7th and a 4th which means they’re looking good for a podium spot if they can finish well. Not surprisingly they remain the best placed of the ten countries fighting for national Olympic qualification.

Austria has overtaken New Zealand in this race for an Olympic berth despite a mixed day on the water. Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher recorded a DNF in race 7 but came out guns blazing in race 8 taking their first race win at this World Championship. While they slip out of the top ten from 9th overall back to 11th they did fair better than the kiwis today who fell from 7th overall to 12th just behind the Austrians.
Local favourites Aaron McIntosh and Mark Kennedy will be disappointed with their on water showing on the penultimate day; however they still look well placed to earn an Olympic berth for New Zealand. In race 7 they were 24th which becomes their discard race and were 15th in race 8 which sees them slip out of the top ten and back to 12th overall.

Blustery north easterlies and rain are predicted off Takapuna, North Shore City tomorrow for the final day of the 2008 Tornado World Championship. Racing is scheduled to start earlier than previously with race 9 set to get underway at 11am.

	Nat	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Total	Nett
1st	AUS	Darren Bundock	Glen Ashby	14	-23	2	2	8	1	1	6	57	34
2nd	CAN	Oskar Johansson	Kevin Stittle	-21	1	3	1	4	19	7	4	60	39
3rd	FRA	Yann Guichard	Alexandre Guyader	4	9	1	3	13	4	5	-23	62	39
4th	GER	Roland Gaebler	Gunnar Struckman	3	3	4	9	-30	18	2	5	74	44
5th	ITA	Francesco Marcolini	Edoardi Bianchi	11	7	10	5	1	(52 OCS)	10	2	98	46
6th	NED	Mitch Booth	Pim Nieuwenhuis	7	2	6	8	-26	22	4	3	78	52
7th	ESP	Fernando Echavarri	Anton Paz	1	14	8	11	23	(52 OCS)	6	7	122	70
8th	USA	John Lovell	Charlie Ogletree	2	5	29	(52 DNF)	3	16	3	13	123	71
9th	FRA	Xavier Revil	Cristophe Espagnon	18	12	14	6	6	(52 OCS)	8	8	124	72
10th	FRA	Billy Besson	Arnaud Jarlegan	19	-20	7	4	5	6	16	16	93	73
11th	AUT	Roman Hagara	Hans Peter Steinacher	10	25	12	15	2	9	(52 DNF)	1	126	74
12th	NZL	Aaron McIntosh	Mark Kennedy	17	8	5	7	10	13	-24	15	99	75
13th	ARG	Santiago Lange	Carlos Espinola	15	10	13	12	-17	8	12	10	97	80
14th	GRE	Iordanis Paschalidis	Konstantine Trigonis	6	-24	20	16	9	5	17	12	109	85
15th	GBR	Andrew Walsh	Edward Barney	5	4	21	-28	22	10	14	14	118	90
16th	UKR	Pavlo Kalynchev	Andrey Shaufranyuk	9	19	-24	21	15	15	11	9	123	99
17th	RUS	Andrey Kirilyuk	Valery Ushkov	16	13	15	13	-33	12	18	19	139	106
18th	GBR	Leigh McMillan	Will Howden	20	21	9	(52 DNF)	14	24	9	11	160	108
19th	BEL	Carolijn Brouwer	Sebbe Godefroid	12	11	19	10	27	(52 OCS)	15	21	167	115
20th	GBR	Rob Wilson	Mark Bulkeley	13	15	11	23	21	-30	13	22	148	118
21st	GER	Johannes Polgar	Florian Spalteholz	27	22	18	14	20	3	19	(52 OCS)	175	123
22nd	ESP	Toni Rivas	Fabian Escude	34	6	-36	17	25	7	20	17	162	126
23rd	DEN	Allan Norregaard	Michael Risoer	22	18	17	22	11	17	21	(52 OCS)	180	128
24th	PUR	Enrique Figueroa	Jorge Hernandez	8	17	28	32	31	11	27	(52 OCS)	206	154
25th	GBR	John Gimson	Stuart Bithell	26	-29	16	27	18	20	23	25	184	155
26th	NZL	Bruce Kendall	Blair Tuke	31	-38	30	24	7	21	31	18	200	162
27th	GER	Tino Mittelmeier	Niko Mittelmeier	23	32	(52 DNF)	29	16	2	30	33	217	165
28th	AUT	Thomas Zajac	Thomas Czajka	29	16	25	31	-32	14	32	24	203	171
29th	RUS	Sergey Dzhienbaev	Maxim Semenov	24	-40	27	20	19	25	35	26	216	176
30th	NZL	Rex Sellers	Brett Sellers	32	26	23	-33	24	27	22	27	214	181
31st	GBR	Tom Phipps	Marcus Lynch	43	(52 DNF)	22	19	28	23	26	28	241	189
32nd	CHN	You Jia Lu	Xiu Ke Chen	30	37	34	25	12	(52 OCS)	28	29	247	195
33rd	BRA	Bruno Di Bernaldi	Mario Tinoco	33	27	35	26	29	(52 OCS)	25	34	261	209
34th	AUS	Brett Burvill	Ryan Duffield	35	33	32	30	34	26	-37	20	247	210
35th	AUS	Rohan langworthy	Jack Benson	25	34	31	18	-40	35	38	32	253	213
36th	NZL	Nigel Williams	Jeremy Stephenson	38	36	26	-39	37	33	33	30	272	233
37th	POL	Piotr Kowalewski	Maciey Klosowicz	37	31	33	34	-42	32	29	38	276	234
38th	GER	Eckart Kaphengst	Rasmus Toepsch	28	30	(52 DNF)	52 DNC	36	34	34	31	297	245
39th	NZL	Dave Shaw	Susan Shaw	36	35	37	37	-38	31	36	36	286	248
40th	NZL	Paul Francis	Aaron Duncan	40	28	(52 DNF)	36	41	36	41	35	309	257
41st	VEN	Saba Yamil	Cendiza Gonzalo	39	39	38	-41	35	29	40	37	298	257
42nd	AUS	Damian Ford	Mark Edmonds	(52 DNS)	41	40	35	45	28	39	39	319	267
43rd	CHN	Bo Lin	Shan Feng Yang	44	42	39	38	-48	41	42	40	334	286
44th	AUS	Paul Peterson	Matt Thackray	42	44	44	44	39	40	45	-46	344	298
45th	NZL	David Mead	Chris Burgess	-48	43	42	40	47	43	46	42	351	303
46th	AUS	Allan Gamble	Kim Nicholas	46	46	45	42	-49	37	47	45	357	308
47th	GER/NZL	Justus Wolf	Justus Maus	45	45	43	46	-51	45	44	43	362	311
48th	AUS/GBR	Stephen Medwell	Stuart Offer	41	(52 DNF)	41	43	46	39	52 DNF	52 DNC	366	314
49th	CHN	An Jie Lu	Xie Hai Zhuang	47	(52 DNF)	48	45	50	42	43	41	368	316
50th	NZL	William Caunce	Andrew Springford	(52 DNF)	47	46	47	44	38	52 DNF	44	370	318
51st	AUS	Paul Raymond	Nicholas Raymond	-49	48	47	48	43	44	48	47	374	325