Rodion LUKA and George LEONCHUK (UKR) have won the 2005 49er World Championship in Moscow. Four more races were sailed on the final day yesterday but the top three did not change from the penultimate day.
Rodion
LUKA and George LEONCHUK (UKR), Olympic silver medallists went into the final day with a 14 point lead over Chris
DRAPER and Simon HISCOCKS (GBR) and never looked like surrendering their position. This is
LUKA and LEONCHUK's first 49er World Championship victory although they have twice finished on the podium, in 2001 and 2003.
DRAPER and HISCOCKS dominated the qualification series but did not properly recover from a bad first day of finals and have to settle for their third silver medal at a 49er Worlds, having previously finished second in 2002 and 2004.
Third overall went to Pietro and Gianfranco SIBELLO (ITA), despite them having an awful final day, finishing 24 in races eleven and twelve. The SIBELLO's did manage to hold off the charge of 2004 Olympic gold medallists and defending champions Iker MARTINEZ and Xavier FERNANDEZ (ESP) who have posted erratic results throughout the championship. Going into the final day MARTINEZ and FERNANDEZ were in tenth position overall and it is a clear mark of their incredible talent in this class that they should end the day in fourth overall. They certainly went out with a bang, taking the bullet in the final race.
MARTINEZ and FERNANDEZ did indeed finish on equal points with Steve MORRISON and Ben RHODES (GBR) but their race victory gave them the edge in the final standings. The Spanish and the British illustrated again why they are consistently at the top of the 49er rankings with two Spanish teams and three British teams finishing in the top ten. John PINK and Alex HOPSON were the third British team finishing ninth overall after a fabulous final day brought them into the top ten. A 13, two thirds and a fourth boosted the pair into ninth overall and saw Marcus BAUR and Max GROY (GER) slide out to eleventh overall. The second Spanish team was Alberto PADRON and Javier DE LA PLAZA who had mixed results but finished up seventh overall.
Twelve races were sailed in the finals series with competitors counting their points from the qualification series as well.
Final Results - Top Ten
(R1 = points from qualification series)
| Pos |
Nation |
Helm |
Crew |
R1 |
R2 |
R3 |
R4 |
R5 |
R6 |
R7 |
R8 |
R9 |
R10 |
R11 |
R12 |
R13 |
Pts |
| 1 |
UKR |
Rodion LUKA |
George LEONCHUK |
54 |
3 |
1 |
8 |
9 |
1 |
4 |
12 |
3 |
7 |
13 |
13 |
2 |
104 |
| 2 |
GBR |
Chris DRAPER |
Simon HISCOCKS |
31 |
20 |
9 |
21 |
1 |
24 |
1 |
6 |
DSQ |
9 |
2 |
10 |
7 |
117 |
| 3 |
ITA |
Piero SIBELLO |
Gianfranco SIBELLO |
64 |
2 |
7 |
10 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
10 |
19 |
10 |
24 |
24 |
8 |
140 |
| 4 |
ESP |
Iker MARTINEZ |
Xabier FERNANDEZ |
85 |
19 |
8 |
5 |
14 |
5 |
16 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
9 |
11 |
1 |
146 |
| 5 |
GBR |
Stephen MORRISON |
Ben RHODES |
69 |
5 |
21 |
4 |
2 |
8 |
11 |
11 |
7 |
2 |
21 |
6 |
25 |
146 |
| 6 |
GER |
Jan PECKOLT |
Hannes PECKOLT |
39 |
15 |
5 |
13 |
13 |
15 |
14 |
18 |
24 |
16 |
1 |
5 |
12 |
148 |
| 7 |
ESP |
Alberto PADRON |
Javier De La PLAZA |
79 |
8 |
16 |
3 |
4 |
20 |
2 |
15 |
1 |
18 |
5 |
3 |
24 |
154 |
| 8 |
DEN |
Allan NORREGARD CHRISTENSEN |
Jonatan PERSSON |
79 |
9 |
RDG(12) |
11 |
3 |
17 |
15 |
1 |
4 |
12 |
10 |
8 |
18 |
164 |
| 9 |
GBR |
John PINK |
Alex HOPSON |
97 |
11 |
20 |
2 |
15 |
4 |
6 |
13 |
8 |
13 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
164 |
| 10 |
AUT |
Nico DELLE-KARTH |
Nikolaus RESCH |
73 |
1 |
2 |
16 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
DSQ |
14 |
19 |
11 |
16 |
17 |
171 |