SAILING - Taipa sailor nails world title

Taipa's Ben Lutze was thrilled with second overall at the Splash World Championships in Portugal - but the disqualification of the provisional winner, Belgian Gilles Cleeran, in the final race on Saturday, saw him dramatically elevated to world champion.
The New Zealand team manager, Whangarei's Mike Wright, said a touch of controversy never hurt a series finale.
"It was very dramatic. In the last race there were a lot of boats over (the start line) and they blew an individual recall but no-one went back," Wright said speaking from Portugal yesterday.
"At the end of the race, the Belgian finished sixth, good enough to win the world cup.
"When they got back on shore, there were a lot of boats recorded as OCS (on course side of the start line - a disqualification unless the line is recrossed) and one of them was the Belgian."
Wright said he felt sympathy for the Belgian competitor because the New Zealand team had felt they had got a rough deal from the race's judges, especially on OCS calls, during the week's competition in the international youth sailing class.
"It took the edge off it for me a bit because we felt it was a bad race management call but it went Ben's way, that's just the way sailing goes sometimes," he said.
Lutze sailed impressively during the week, particularly on day two when he finished second in very light conditions.
"He's a big, strapping lad now and to finish with a second when the lightweights were doing very well, especially when he didn't start well, was a particularly significant result for the week," Wright said.
He said the week's sailing was technically difficult with a combination of tide, swell and breezes to negotiate and the sailors with the best concentration had prospered.
Lutze finished with three wins and three seconds, with results from 11 races of 13 counting toward the result.
The New Zealand team of 11 sailors also lifted the top country trophy at the tournament after exceptional results in the regatta. Cleeren just pipped Aucklander George Lane for second by a point, with another Kiwi Scott Fyfe in fifth and Whangarei's Michael Cate in his first world championships, finishing a creditable seventh.
With Kiwis Joshua Edmonds and Jordan Coles in ninth and tenth and with Declan Burn and another Taipa sailor, Keziah Deverell, in 16th and 17th respectively, nine Kiwis made the top 20 of the 100-strong field. Whangarei's Joseph Wright finished in 22nd.