Australia's Tom Burton wins 2019 Laser Standard title

After the two final races, held in perfect 10 to 12-knot winds, Tom Burton (AUS) held on to his overnight lead to become the 2019 Laser Standard Men’s World Champion.

This if the first world title for the 2016 Olympic gold medalist from Australia after two second place podium finishes in 2014 and 2017. Burton proved his championship form in a variety of conditions over the six-day event, and it was certainly his consistency that earned him the title.

Going into the day with an 18-point lead, it was essentially up to Burton to avoid making a critical error on the final day when each of his nearest rivals already had to discard a high score. In the day’s first race, Burton sailed a conservative race to finish 14th, a score that then became his discard. The pressure was off a bit after Jean-Baptiste Bernaz of France, who was in second place going into the day posted an eight place finish. Burton was also helped by Germany’s Philip Buhl who scored a Black Flag disqualification for being over the starting line early. Buhl’s Black Flag pushed New Zealander’s Sam Meech and George Gautry in to first and second for the race and secured their spot near the top of the leaderboard.

Going into the final race, Burton still held a 13-point lead over Bernaz and fellow Australian, Matt Wearn, either of whom needed to win the final race and have Burton finish worse than 14th to secure the world championship title. As it turned out, Brazil’s Bruno Fontes led from start to finish in the final race, putting both Wearn and Bernaz out of contention to win. Burton thus claimed victory, while Bernaz’s 20th place dropped him to 6th overall. Wearn’s fifth place finish put him on the podium in second ahead of fellow Kiwi sailor, George Gautry, who’s ninth place in the final race moved him up to third place overall.

This event also served as a country qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were sailors work to secure one of five available berths for their respective countries to send a representative to the games. In the end, the five country qualifying spots go to Sweden in 13th place, Argentina in 14th place, Russia in 17th place, Hungary in 20th place and Guatemala in 22nd place overall, subject to final notification from World Sailing following the event to the relevant Member National Authority / National Olympic Committee,

Top-ten results after 12 races:
1. Tom Burton                      AUS      59 pts
2. Matthew Wearn               AUS      63 pts
3. George Gautrey                NZL      68 pts
4. Sam Meech                       NZL      72 pts
5. Nick Thompson                GBR      73 pts
6. Jean-Baptiste Bernaz       FRA      78 pts
7. Elliot Hanson                    GBR      92 pts
8. Lorenzo Chiavarini          GBR      92  pts
9. Philip Buhl                        GER      96 pts
10. Thomas Saunders          NZL      96 pts
 
For more information:
Event Website – https://2019worlds.laserjapan.org/standard/
Results – https://2019worlds.laserjapan.org/standard/results/

About the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition Qualification System



The 2018 World Championships is the principal qualification event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with 101 places, 40% of the total quota in the ten Olympic sailing disciplines, up for grabs. 



Six places will be available in the Men’s and Women’s One Person Dinghy following the 2018 Asian Games and 2019 Pan Am Games.



Class Association World Championships in 2019 will see the awarding of 61 places and throughout the remainder of 2019, moving into 2020, Continental Qualification events will be held to decide the remaining 68 places.



Two Men’s One Person Dinghy and two Women’s One Person Dinghy spots will be awarded to eligible National Olympic Committees (NOC) through the Tripartite Commission Invitation Places. The International Olympic Committee will invite eligible NOCs on 14 October 2019 to apply for these places.



Each NOC may enter a maximum of one boat per event, a total of 15 athletes (eight men and seven women) at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition.



All places are awarded subject to the details of the qualification system.  Click here to view the qualification system in full.