Olympic champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke remain the toast of New Zealand sailing after taking out the sport's top award for the fourth straight year.
The 49er pair were last night claimed the 2016 Sailor of the Year gong at the Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards, proving they are truly in a league of their own following a dominant Olympic campaign.
The four-time world champions made history last year when they won the Sir Bernard Fergusson Trophy for the third time - a feat no other individual or crew had ever achieved since it was first awarded in 1963. This year, the pair push that record just a little further out of reach, with their names to be engraved on the historic trophy for 2013, 2014, 2015, and now 2016.
Burling and Tuke have delivered a dominant Olympic campaign, culminating in an astonishing regatta in Rio to take the gold medal by 43 points, the biggest winning margin across all the classes in at the Games.
The New Zealand pair were assured of a medal after 11 races, assured of gold after 12 races and then won the medal race to secure the Olympic victory in impressive style. In the nomination period they won two 49er world championships, as well as being unbeaten in all major regattas in the four-year build up to the Olympic Games.
