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Yachting in New Zealand is riding a high and last night won two categories at the 2017 New Zealand Sport and Recreation Awards.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke won gold in Rio by a record margin. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing
Olympic champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who have dominated the 49er class for the past four years, won the high performance campaign award and earlier in the evening the Aon 2016 Youth Sailing World Championships won the event excellence category.
Burling and Tuke won every major regatta they entered between the 2012 London Olympics and last year’s Rio Games – 28 regattas – and won the gold medal by a mammoth 43 points, the biggest margin of victory of any sailing class in the Olympics since the modern scoring system was introduced in 1968. They were also named Team of the Year at February’s Halberg Awards.
The pair missed last night’s dinner in Auckland, given they are presently battling it out on the water with Emirates Team New Zealand at the America’s Cup in Bermuda. They will decide after that campaign whether it’s realistic to try to win back-to-back Olympics titles in Tokyo in 2020.
“Peter and Blair put together a flawless campaign and it’s great that has been recognised as the pinnacle campaign against so many other New Zealand athletes who were successful in Rio,” Yachting New Zealand chief executive David Abercrombie said.
The other finalists were Paralympic swimmer Sophie Pascoe and Olympic shot putter Tom Walsh.
The Youth Sailing World Championships is the pinnacle event for sailors aged under 19. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing
New Zealand hosted 379 sailors from 65 nations at the 2016 Aon Youth Sailing World Championships in Torbay in December, putting on a regatta that World Sailing said had “raised the bar” for future youth worlds.
What made it significant was the short lead-in time, with only seven months to organise the event after Oman pulled out of hosting the regatta. Typically the event is allocated to a host nation three to four years out.
The event excellence award celebrated best practice event planning and delivery in the sport and recreation sector and Yachting New Zealand were winners ahead of the 2016 World Bowls Championships, Crankworx Rotorua and Te Wananga o Aotearoa Waka Ama Sprint National Championships.
“It’s fantastic,” Abercrombie said. “It’s great recognition for a whole bunch of volunteers and some of our staff who put on such a wonderful event.”
The New Zealand Sport and Recreation Awards have been in existence for 10 years. The judging panel comprised of Peter Dale (chair), Sir John Wells, Selwyn Maister, Jennifer Gill and Geoff Barry.
