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Sailors compete during Tornado Medal Race of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Sailing event in Qingdao, Olympic co-host city in east China's Shandong Province, Aug. 21, 2008. Fernando Echavarri/Anton Paz of Spain (3rd L) won the gold medal in the event. [Song Zhenping/Xinhua]

Spanish pair Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz claimed the tornado gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Sailing Regatta on Thursday.

This medal race represented the swansong for the Tornado, which has been in the Olympics since 1976 Montreal. The multihull sailing discipline has been removed from the London 2012 Olympic event list.

With three points leading into the double-point medal race, the Spanish duo were at their best in moderate to strong wind conditions and were superb in today's 12-15 knot breeze with big waves.

They enjoyed a flying start, finishing first by the first mark. They dropped to the third and fourth by the second and third marks, but managed to keep the fourth position till the finishing line, totaling 44 points overall to seal up the crown.

"After 10 years of training, we finally got our first Olympic medal. We feel like we're the luckiest ones here. We've been performing very well together as a team. We've been winning championships and regattas, but this is the most important win of them all," said Echavarri, the 2005 and 2007 world champions.

Australian crew Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby took the silver medal with 49 points. Despite their last finish by the first race, the Australian pair moved to fifth by the second mark and maintained the position till the end to secure their second position overall.

"Racing here is really tough. We are a little disappointed. We are here for the gold but we missed it because we stuffed up at the start and we parked. We're still extremely happy about the silver. Hopefully there will be another multi-hull event in the Olympics again," said World No. 1 Bundock.

"The Tornado is an extremely beautiful, fun and media-friendly class. It's the only boat that audience can see the clear facial expression of sailors through the camera fixed on it. I'm very sad it's being abandoned. It's extremely hard for us to move to other classes," said Ashby after his first Olympic medal race.

The bronze medal went to Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola from Argentina with 56 points. They won four of the 10 opening series races. In the medal race, they rebounded from the eighth finish by the first mark to sixth at the finishing line to ensure the position on the podium.

"We're very happy to receive this medal in such tricky conditions. The competition has been really tough and open. We've been working extremely hard for this dream for eight years," said Lange after his fifth Olympic sailing.

"I've sailed the Laser, Star and Tornado. But I like Tornado most. We're very happy to receive a medal in the last Tornado race in Olympics," he added.

The Tornado was designed in 1967 and has been used at every Games since 1976 Montreal. It is the only multihull to ever have been sailed at the Olympic games.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2008)