Feature

Nick Thompson wins Laser World Championship

Published on July 8th, 2015

Kingston, ON (July 8, 2015) – It wasn’t a dominant day by Britain’s Nick Thompson, but the Laser Standard Men’s World Championship leader did what was needed to seal the victory and claim his first Laser class world title over the 158 sailors.

After posting a 7-2-4 yesterday to move into the lead, his 20 point margin at the start of the day was more than sufficient with finishes today of 25-15-18. With the second discard now in affect, Thompson’s final margin was 26 points over Philipp Buhl (GER) in second, with Tom Burton (AUS) 30 points back in third.

Thompson becomes the first British Laser World Champion since Paul Goodison (2009) to claim the coveted world crown in the highly competitive men’s single-handed class, having won two silvers and two bronze medals from previous editions (2009, 2014 bronze; 2010, 2011 silver).

The 29-year-old Lymington sailor was determined to complete the medal set, and claimed victory in style, counting nine results inside the top seven from the 13 races staged at the site of the 1976 Olympic sailing regatta.

“I’m kind of speechless to be honest. It’s been a long time coming!” said a relieved Thompson. “I’ve medalled in four other Worlds and come so close but never quite won one, and to finally do it – and do it the year before the Olympics when it really matters…I’m over the moon about it!”

The three-race final day amid a tricky offshore breeze meant nothing was certain, as Thompson was acutely aware.

“I struggled [to sleep last night],” he admitted. “Normally I don’t get too wound up by anything or too stressed out, but having had such a good day yesterday I was riding high on emotion.

“I had a good lead and a good discard so I was kind of thinking ‘actually this could happen’, whereas previously the whole way through the event I’d managed to keep pretty level-headed.

“Today was a really tough day on the water. We had offshore winds which we hadn’t see all week so I knew from the onset that it was going to be a big points day. The only thing that kept me calm in that is that I’d obviously had such a good series before so I had a good discard.

“To finally win one, and the hardest event to win, is brilliant.”

The top North American was Christopher Barnard (USA) in 13th, edging out by one point teammate Charlie Buckingham (USA) who finished 14th.

The seven day event (July 2-8) completed 13 races, losing two days of the competition when the winds were too light to race.