UPDATE 3-Olympics-Sailing-Spanish pair secure Tornado gold
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QINGDAO, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Spain's Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz held their nerve in choppy seas to win gold in the Tornado on Thursday, possibly the last time the class will appear in the Olympics.
Australia's Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby won silver and Argentina's Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola took bronze.
The Spaniards, eighth in Athens four years ago, led their Australian rivals by three points going into the medal race but a fourth place in gusting winds on Thursday, with Bundock and Ashby fifth, was enough to take gold.
"After 10 years of training, we finally got out first Olympic medal," Echavarri told reporters.
"We feel like we're the luckiest here. We've been winning championships and regattas, but this is the most important win of them all."
Bundock, who also won Olympic Tornado silver in 2000 along with John Forbes, said a disastrous start to the medal race proved costly.
"We stuffed up at the start and we parked," he said.
"We broke our mast swivel and that's okay in 5 knots or under. But it was really breezy out there."
Twice Olympic champions Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher of Austria, winners in Sydney and Athens, sneaked into the medal race after a disappointing preliminary series and finished ninth overall.
The Qingdao regatta is the last Games for the Tornado class for the foreseeable future. An Olympic boat since 1976 and arguably the most spectacular of the Olympic fleet, it was left out of the London 2012 schedule.
Spain's Tornado triumph was their first gold of the regatta, although they could yet be awarded a second by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), along with their Italian counterparts, have appealed to CAS asking that Denmark's 49er team be disqualified from gold following a controversial medal race on Sunday. Spain's Iker Martinez and Xavier Fernandez are in silver position.
The Danes took gold after borrowing a boat from the Croatian team after their mast snapped on the way to the start. (Editing by Alison Williams)
