Mixed crew win Tornado Worlds

Roland and Nahid Gaebler win by a point

Fantastic races on day 4, the last of the Tornado World Championship. The Greeks Iordanis Paschalides and Konstantinos Trigonis were the stars of the day scoring three bullets. But unfortunately this was not enough to pass the Germans overall leaders Roland and Nahid Gaebler, finishing a mere 1 point behind to secure second place overall. Third were German brothers Helge and Christian Sach. The Gaebler's win marks the first occasion a mixed crew has won the Tornado Worlds.

Today the wind started light and remained so for the first race. The Race Officer held the boats until the wind built before starting racetwo. Greeks Danny Paschalides and Kostas Trigonis were on fire but the German couple Roland and Nahid Gaebler were always close behind.

In the third race the wind shifted by 40 degrees but the Race Officer was still able to continue by changing the course. By the end of the race the wind had filled in with the rain and was blowing 25 knots. There was some great high speed downwind action on the last leg with some competitors getting their best results.

John Ready was a great example, having picked up a crew who had never sailed a Tornado before at the last minute, he then finishing 3rd. There was a massive cheer from John and Lucas as they crossed the line. Lucas said it was the first time he “had sailed a Tornado and it's a really cool boat”.

There were two mixed teams in the top 10 which is great to see and both were flying today! Christina Loweg, one of the mixed teams from Germany said "for me helming the Tornado is not so hard, it's fast and it's fun". The team finished 7th overall.

2010 World Champions Roland and Nahid Gaebler shared their excitement: “First of all we were very happy to see so many Tornados here. The Tornado is back on the track. We are still missing the presence of some nations, but the numbers are surely going up! We could feel a new spirit in our class and highly motivated sailors who want to see the Tornado back at the Olympics. How amazing is it that the youngest competitor was 15 years old and the oldest 72!

"We have been sailing together for over a year and to beat one of the best Olympic teams (Greeks Paschalides and Trigonis) was a real challenge for us. Never mind that we had winds between 6 and 25 knots! We have been married since 1992 and now sailing together on the Tornado plus winning a World Title is unbelievable. We are so happy!”

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