Tauranga sailor Peter Burling and 49er crew mate Blair Tuke are returning to New Zealand as silver medalists, won at the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships contested in Perth.

The NZL Sailing team also claimed two bronze medals at the event.

Pictured from left to right: Blair Tuke, Peter Burling, Andrew Murdoch, Olivia Powrie and Jo Aleh proudly display their 2011 World Championship medals.

These were won by Andrew Murdoch in the men's Laser and Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie in the Women's 470.

The event is a precursor to the London Olympics in 2012 with many of the world's top sailors competing.

Yachting New Zealand's Olympic programme manager Jez Fansone says winning three medals at the Perth event is a strong result.

'What we aim for going into the last day is the opportunity to win medals.

'We had that chance in all classes today and came away with three.

'It is the end of two long weeks and the team kept going right to the very end.

'They made the most of the opportunities they were given today.”

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke started their final day in fourth overall, and after finishing second in the double point medal race, they climbed up to the silver medal position.

'We've been hanging around the fourth mark all week, it's been similar every day, we just went in trying to make better things happen,” says Peter, 'and that's just what they did”.

'It gives us a lot of confidence going forward for the next six months.”

Andrew Murdoch was in a similar position, but entered the medal race in eighth overall. 'Obviously things were really tight going into it, so I just had to sail my own race, and I was able to do that so I'm happy.”

'I'll also be going to next year's world championships in Germany – that's not long away so it's another world champs to look forward to.”

Even though the regular local breeze didn't serve up kind conditions to the sailors, Andrew Murdoch commented, 'It was still a great venue and I'm happy with the conditions we had.”

In the women's 470 fleet, Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie recovered well from an individual recall on the start line and found their way back up to the lead pack to finish third in the medal race.

For this team and all the others on the centre course of Bathers Bay, racing in front of the hundreds of people on the grandstands was out of the ordinary.

'It was amazing seeing all the people there and seeing all the flags, it brings such a different feel to the sailing because usually we are miles out in the ocean with no one there, it was cool to have all the support with everyone there.”

JP Tobin and Tom Ashley both came out of the event with top 10 results not to be dismissed in this competitive fleet; JP in fifth and Tom in sixth.

Last week's accomplishments are also not forgotten; the NZL Sailing Team had two career highlight results, an eighth place finish for the 470 team of Paul Snow-Hansen with Jason Saunders, and a 10th for Sara Winther in the Laser Radial.

In total, the NZL Sailing Team had eight boats within the top 10 at the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships.

The team of Kiwi sailors in Perth has also qualified the country for the Olympic Games in nine classes.

Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships
New Zealand's Final Standings

2nd Peter Burling and Blair Tuke – 49er
3rd Andrew Murdoch – Laser
3rd Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie – Women's 470
5th JP Tobin- Men's RS:X
6th Tom Ashley – Men's RS:X
8th Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders – Men's 470
9th Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt – Match Racing
10th Sara Winther – Laser Radial
13th Andy Maloney – Laser
17th Mike Bullot – Laser
21st Dan Slater – Finn
26th Steff Williams – Women's RS:X
28th Matt Coutts – Finn
32nd Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski
34th Sam Meech – Laser
35th Natalia Kosinska – Women's RS:X
37th Josh Junior – Laser
38th Miranda Powrie – Laser Radial
41st Justina Sellers – Women's RS:X
43rd Vicki Francis and Erica Dawson – Women's 470
46th Nik Burfoot – Finn
55th Rachel Basevi – Laser Radial
55th James Turner and Matthew Jones – Men's 470
56th Luke Stevens and Sam Bullock – Men's 470
57th Brad Douglas – Finn
57th Antonio Cozzolino – Men's RS:X
62nd Chris Burgess and Rohan Swanson
64th Rob Coutts – Finn
69th Gareth Moore and Ben Goodwin – Men's 470
70th Mike Snow-Hansen and Derek Snow – Men's 470
77th Carl Evans- Men's RS:X
82nd Tom Saunders – Laser