9 Aug 2012

Burling and Tuke sail to silver

5:00 am on 9 August 2012

Sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have secured the 100th medal for New Zealand at an Olympic Games, taking silver in the 49er class.

With the exception of windsurfing, the medal is the first won by New Zealand sailors at an Olympics since 1992.

Burling (skipper) and Tuke were too far ahead of the chasing pack in earlier racing to be overhauled for second in the final medal race off Weymouth on Wednesday, but lagged too far behind the Australian crew to take gold at the London Games.

In the medal race, the New Zealanders came second behind Austrians Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch in a time of 29min 34s.

Overall, the Australian pair of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen won the gold with 56 points, New Zealand claimed silver with 80 points, while Danes Allan Norregaard and Peter Lang had to settle for bronze on 114 points.

Meanwhile, New Zealand's women's 470 crew of Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie are tied on points with Great Britain going into the final medals race on Friday. In race 9 on Wednesday they finished second, but 18th in race 10.

The pair are guaranteed a medal, with 22 points between them and fourth-placed France.

Aleh, 26, is competing at her second Olympics, after finishing seventh in the laser radial at the 2008 Beijing Games, while Powrie, 24, is competing at a Games for the first time.