Tom Burton of Australia is the the 2019 Laser World Championship. He finished the final day in Japan with a four point lead ahead of compatriot Matthew Wearn, with George Gautrey of New Zealand completing the podium.
Sam Meech NZL won the penultimate race ahead of Gautrey with Luka Zelko Zan SLO taking third place.
With Burton having claimed the title, the final race went to Brazil’s Bruno Fontes, with second Tonci Stipanovic CRO and third place to Sergei Komissarov RUS.
Burton, who won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, will now compete at the final Tokyo 2020 Test event in August.
For the British competitors is was a strong finish, with Nick THompson adding a 4, 4, score to finish in fifth place, 14 points off the leader. Once again it was a consistant scoreline spoiled by two or three double-figure results and without a race win.
Not that Burton managed any race wins on his way to the title. At the end of the qualifiers (6 races) Burton was in sixth and four points off the lead, while Thompson was 16 points back in 13th place.
That early low scoring counted for Burton in the final six races as he added 42 points to move into the lead, while Thompson added 44 points moving him to fourth place, but the earlier high scoring still weighed heavily, keeping him from a podium place.
For Britain’s Elliot Hanson, who was in fourth and two places ahead of Burton at the end of the qualifiers, the devil was in the final series.
At one point he collapsed to 13th, racking up 76 points (after discarding a 40th) in the final six races, and just managing to salvage seventh place overall.
Other GBR: Lorenzo Chiavarini was 8th, Michael Becket 21st and Jack Wetherell 43rd.
This event also served as a country qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In the end, the five country qualifying spots go to Sweden in 13th place, Argentina in 14th place, Russia in 17th place, Hungary in 20th place and Guatemala in 22nd place overall.
Laser – Final leaders after day 6, 12 races (156 entries)
1st AUS 199012 Burton Tom – – 59 pts
2nd AUS 199015 Wearn Matthew – – 63 pts
3rd NZL 214437 Gautrey George – – 69 pts
4th NZL 216175 Meech Sam – – 72 pts
5th GBR 211921 Thompson Nick – – 73 pts
6th FRA 213932 Bernaz Jean-Baptiste – – 78 pts
7th GBR 209134 Hanson Elliot – – 92 pts
8th GBR 216159 Chiavarini Lorenzo – – 92 pts
9th GER 215517 Buhl Philipp – – 96 pts
10th NZL 215081 Saunders Thomas – – 96 pts
11th USA 206051 Buckingham Charlie – – 105 pts
12th BRA 207711 Scheidt Robert – – 122 pts
13th SWE 215344 Stalheim Jesper – – 125 pts
14th ARG 213387 Guaragna Francisco – – 129 pts
15th CRO 212013 Stipanovic Tonci – – 133 pts
16th KOR 210793 Ha Jeemin – – 134 pts
17th RUS 213011 Komissarov Sergei – – 138 pts
18th CYP 212431 Kontides Pavlos – – 140 pts
19th FIN 214111 Tapper Kaarle – – 141 pts
20th HUN 213095 Vadnai Benjamin – – 145 pts
21st GBR 210139 Beckett Michael – – 149 pts
