Australian Institute of Sport sailor Nathan Outteridge has won gold in the 2011 Moth World Championship with an outstanding performance in front of his home town of Lake Macquarie.

The 24-year-old went into the final day’s four races with an 11-point lead in the overall standings of the championship. He clinched the championship after finishing in sixth place in the third race on the final day with an unassailable 8-point finishing lead ahead of over fellow Australian Joe Turner in second place.

Outteridge won 10 out of 18 races in the qualifying and final rounds on his way to clinching the world championship.

’The whole week went really well and it was great to begin the year with a big win,’ said Outteridge.

’I spent a lot of time working on the boat before the regatta to ensure that it would hold together in pretty extreme conditions and it did just that which was great.’

’I sailed pretty consistently all week which really paid off, it was also good to have my training partners do well.’

In other strong results for AIS sailors, Laser World Champion Tom Slingsby finished in seventh place in the championshipand 49er crew Iain Jensen was ninth.