Australian team-mates Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen have won the gold medal at the 2009 49er World Championships regatta after a tremendous performance on Sunday 19 July, in Riva del Garda, Italy.

Australian Institute of Sport skipper Nathan Outteridge and new sailing partner Iain Jensen finished in second place in the medal race, beating the UK’s John Pink and Rick Peacock to the world champion title by a comfortable 15 points.

The Australian sailing team went into the medal race with a five point lead over Italian sailors Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello. Conditions were calm to moderate, with winds of 8–12 knots.

Outteridge and Jensen were slow starting, just managing eighth place halfway down the first straight and sixth place rounding the first mark. But then, with perfect timing and execution, the Australian team utilised a gust of wind to overtake three boats.

Third place was all they needed to win the world championships, but the duo went one place better, overtaking the Sibello brothers to finish second in the medal race.

Yesterday’s win is a remarkable achievement for the Australian pair whose only previous race together was the Holland’s Delta Lloyd Regatta, which they won in May.

Olympian Nathan Outteridge was thrilled.

‘I couldn’t be any happier at this stage. We had a good range of conditions here and we performed well in all of them.

‘The key to our win was being consistent and at the end of the regatta we only dropped 18 points while others around us were dropping 30 odd.

‘We came here thinking that a finish in the top five or top ten would be good but to take the victory it couldn’t have gone any better,’ Outteridge said.

Jensen commented that the duo’s intensive preparation was key to their victory.

‘In Holland in May we were quick in the light winds and we knew we had a bit of work to do in the heavier stuff we’d face here in Italy so we’ve worked hard at that and it’s paid off.

‘It’s great to be successful so early in the partnership,’ said Jensen.

Other Australians sailed well in the 49er medal race: Will and Sam Phillips, in the Australian Sailing Development Squad, finished 15th overall, a strong performance given it was only Sam’s second 49er regatta outside Australia; and Euan McNicol and Sam Newton finished 19th — another good result given that this was their first European summer campaign together.

In the silver fleet, Chris Nicholson and Ben Austin finished in seventh place, ahead of David O’Connor and Robert Bell in tenth and Steven Thomas and Kyle Langford in 16th. Brothers Clint and Ty Marshall finished in fifth place in the bronze fleet, with Sean O’Rourke and Harry Bethwaite in 15th and Robert Gibbs and James Garnaut in 17th.