17 Apr 2016

More success for Burling and Tuke

7:28 am on 17 April 2016

The New Zealand sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won their 25th 49er regatta with victory at the European Championship in Barcelona.

With less than four months until the 2016 Rio Olympic Games Burling (25 years) and Tuke (26 years) are unanimously recognised as better, faster and more consistent, leaving the rest of the fleet wondering if anyone can catch up.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke on their way to their 25th straight 49er regattta win, in Bacelona.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke on their way to their 25th straight 49er regattta win, in Bacelona. Photo: Supplied

The 49er fleet squeezed a total of 19 races into the six day schedule with Burling and Tuke starting the regatta with a couple of race wins and never relinquishing their lead.

"Obviously we're pretty stoked to go out there and take another title," says Peter Burling.

"We've been doing a bit of work over the summer, you know, tidying up a few things. It's just pleasing that we've come out of this week with a few things to work on as well. You know we're really happy with how it went, and we're going to keep pushing on towards the goal later in the year."

Tuke said they "had to fight our way back through (the fleet) a couple of times. We enjoy being out in front, you sort of learn to be able to win races and to finish off races you have to have experience up there. We've managed to do that this week by being in the top few half way up the beat and finishing it off from there and today being right in the pack and sort of scraping through and getting into good positions by the top mark or later in the race. "

Fellow New Zealanders Alex Maloney and Molly Meech finished fifth in the women's class.

Across 19 races sailed in Barcelona Maloney and Meech returned top five finishes in eleven of those including a couple of race wins during the week.

The Laser Radial World Champs completed just one race on day two of their regatta in Mexico.

Sara With is lying 19th, while Susannah Pyatt is 21st overall.