(QINGDAO, August 21) -- Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz of Spain crossed the finish line in fourth, one boat ahead of Glenn Ashby and Darren Bundock of Australia to win the Tornado (Multihull) gold medal on a blustery final day of Sailing in Qingdao.

　　World No. 1 Ashby and Bunddock held onto the silver medal position, with Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola of Argentina winning bronze.

　　This is the Spanish pair's first Olympic medal and the second Sailing medal for Spain at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

　　It was Bundock's second silver medal in the Tornado. His first silver was won at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. He was also the 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2008 Tornado world champion.

　　This was the third Sailing medal Australia has won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with the other two being gold in the Men's 470 and 470 (Two Person Dinghy) events.

　　The Australians lost what chance they had of overhauling the Spanish crew when they fluffed their start and then broke a mast swivel.

　　"We stuffed up at the start and we parked," Bundock said.

　　"We broke our mast swivel and that's okay in five knots or under. But it was really breezy out there and all we could do was our best.

　　"We're still extremely happy about the silver. Hopefully there will be another multihull event in the Olympics again."

　　Lange and Espinola also won the bronze medal in Athens.

　　"We are very happy about our bronze medal. We won the 2004 World Championship in Spain, but the conditions were harder here, so any medal would do for us. I want to thank my family and my friends for helping us in the past," Lange said.

　　Echavarri and Paz of Spain were the leaders going into the medal race, with Bundock and Ashby of Australia in second while Lange and Espinola of Argentina and Johannes Polgar and Florian Spalteholz of Germany were within striking distance.

　　Polgar and Spalteholz saw their chances vanish when they capsized on the first run while Bundock and Ashby took a big risk by crossing the line on port tack and heading for the spectator gallery and were trailing in ninth spot around the first weather mark. At that point, the Spaniards were first in the 10-boat fleet.

　　The fleet got further separated on the next beat, and as the Spaniards dropped to fourth, the Australians climbed to fifth, but the short two-lap course never gave them a chance to deny the Spaniards gold.

　　"After ten years of training, we finally got our first Olympic medal. We feel like we're the luckiest here," said Echavarri.

　　"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," he said. "The conditions were really difficult today, and we were quite nervous when we were out there. We just reminded ourselves to concentrate more on the sailing and treat it like any other race."