The youngest sailors ever to represent New Zealand at an Olympic Games were selected on Thursday to compete at Beijing in August.
Seventeen-year-old pair Carl Evans and Peter Burling have proven themselves as New Zealand's top 470 performers, having impressed selectors with a string of top performances at all the recent major international events, the New Zealand Press Association reported on Thursday.
Most recently they finished 11th at the 470 world championships in Melbourne.
The pair stepped up to the 470 class less than 12 months ago from the 420, where they were reining World Champions.
Seasoned yachtsmen Hamish Pepper, 36, and Carl Williams, 26, also had their Games spots confirmed on Thursday in the Star class.
Beijing will be Pepper's third Olympics after Atlanta in 1996 and Athens four years ago.
Pepper and Williams won the Star world championships in 2006.
The first members of the yachting team to Beijing 2008 were selected late last year.
They were former Olympic champion Barbara Kendall (boardsailing), Tom Ashley (boardsailing), Jo Aleh (Laser radial), Andrew Murdoch (Laser) and Dan Slater (Finn).
Chief executive of Yachting New Zealand Des Brennan welcomed the latest announcements and had his sights set on a strong performance in Qingdao, China from the New Zealand yachting team in five months time.
Source: Xinhua
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