O'Connell & Siganto win World title

It doesn’t get much closer for a title than this as the 29er World Championship came down to the last race and only one point.

In fact, eventual champions Kyle O’Connell and Tom Siganto still weren’t sure they had won when they arrived ashore.

Siganto explained, “We were pretty nervous coming into today, and we knew we had to do well the last race to keep the lead; a couple of things went wrong the last race, we made some mistakes, but we managed to keep it.”

Second overall, Ignacio Varisco and Federico Garcia from Argentina turned it on the last four races with a 1-5-5-2-1 to move them to within striking distance of the title, The duo from Argentina said their plan was “to make the podium.”

They continued, “We tried really hard but just missed it – it was great sailing this week.”

Likewise, the US team of Christopher Williford and Wade Waddell, who finished 3rd overall, commented that they started the day in 7th, but dropped to 12th overall going into the last 2 races.

“We were very surprised where we ended up and sailed a 16-20-1-2 to move to the podium – we’re very happy!’

O’Connell and Siganto also claim the top youth team with Mimi El-Kazindar and Emma Loveridge (GBR) as top female team.

The Silver fleet was won handily by Matt Venables and John Mather (GBR) with the Bronze fleet won by Tania Bonilla and Nuria Miro (ESP).

The 29er Class Worlds will move to Medemblik, Netherlands for the 2016 edition, and the 2016 Europeans will be held in Tonsberg, Norway.