Australian Sailing Team at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne
by Cora Zillich 16 Dec 2014 19:42 GMT
8-14 December 2014
It was another successful medal haul for the Australian Sailing Team (AST) on day two of medal racing at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne with four gold, three silver and two bronze added to the Australian Sailing Team and Squad (AST/ASS) tally after yesterday's one gold, two silver and one bronze.
Laser World #1 Tom Burton (NSW) finished off a successful year with another win, his third consecutive gold at the annual Melbourne Sailing World Cup. Teammate Matt Wearn (WA) won silver, completing the strong performance of the Australian Laser squad, which saw four AST/ASS sailors in the top ten.
Jason Waterhouse (NSW) and Lisa Darmanin (NSW) added another gold medal in the Nacra 17 with teammates Darren Bundock (NSW) and Nina Curtis (NSW) winning silver and Euan McNicol (NSW) and Lucinda Whitty (NSW) bronze.
Australian Sailing Squad's and local Victorian Oliver Tweddell finished overall second in the Finn, followed by Jake Lilley (QLD) in third.
On Saturday (13 December) the Australian Sailing Team and Squad finished a successful first Medal Race day at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne with Olympic gold medallists Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) winning gold and Queenslanders Joel Turner and Lewis Brake winning silver in the 49er class. Jo Sterling (QLD) added a silver in the women's RS:X, her first World Cup medal, while Tess Lloyd (VIC) and Caitlin Elks (WA) won a bronze in the 49erFX.
The AST also won both invited Paralympic classes yesterday with the Paralympic gold medallists Daniel Fitzgibbon (NSW) and Liesl Tesch (NSW) winning the SKUD18 and Paralympian Matt Bugg (TAS) the 2.4mR.
Laser
World #1 Laser sailor Tom Burton and winner of the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup concluded a successful year by taking out his third consecutive Melbourne title. Burton has had a great year, winning two World Cups, the Rio test event as well as the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final.
Burton took the lead from day two and never let go making it a Melbourne hat-trick.
"It's great to finish off the week as well as the year with a win and to make it my third gold in a row here in Melbourne. This was another great win and it's been nice being back here. It's been a good week with sailing pretty much every day and short days on the water, which is a real bonus in the Laser class. It's been one of the windier events that we've had this year and it's been good to have real close racing," Tom Burton recapped the event.
Burton was chased by teammate Matt Wearn all week and finished on the podium. While Wearn was happy with silver, he left no doubt that he is after more:
"I'm happy to consolidate with a second for this regatta and go into next year fighting and ready to take him (Tom) on! I think during this regatta I proved that he can be beaten. I probably got closer in the stronger winds than the lighter air but I think with another year of sailing I will definitely give it the best shot."
"If I can get him, I can get him and if I can't then I won't be too disappointed. Things get heated out on the water at times, as you'd expect in tight racing, but on shore we are good mates and it's great for the team to have good training partners going into 2016."
Four Australian Sailing Laser athletes in the top ten underlined the current strength of the squad, coached by 2000 Olympic bronze medallist Michael Blackburn.
In the Laser Radial Australian Sailing Squad's Ashley Stoddart was the only Australian in the top ten medal race, finishing fourth overall.
Nacra17
Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin had an unassailable lead in the Nacra 17 fleet after a dominant week posting consistently strong results and winning ten of the fifteen races.
They finished the Medal Race in third and given the point score had a strategy of staying out of trouble. Skipper Jason Waterhouse explained:
"We're very happy with the result overall and the medal race was a bit of fun. We had nice conditions, pretty bumpy and windy, which we like. We just wanted to get around the course without breaking anything – that was the goal. We knew we couldn't lose the regatta with the point score we had going into today."
"We're really happy that the training post the World Champs has paid off to win this event. Rio in mind, we still have a long way to go until the big goal and there will be lots of training until then."
Darren Bundock and Nina Curtis finished the week in second and the skipper was complimentary of his team and training mates.
"Jason and Lisa are sailing really well, which is good and it lifts the bar a little bit for us as a challenge to catch up again."
"This was our first week back racing since the world championships and we had one week training beforehand. It's been good and we have had a good mix of conditions."
Australian Sailing Squad's Euan McNicol and Lucinda Whitty won the Medal Race and the bronze medal in the five boat fleet: "It's been good racing against Darren, Jason, Lisa and Nina and for the team it's been good pressure. We are not too happy with third but that's the way it rolls." McNicol said after racing.
Men's 470 & Women's 470
Australian Sailing Squad's identical twins Alex and Patrick Conway (NSW) successfully finished off a strong week by winning Sunday's Medal Race and taking home the gold medal ahead of Portugal. With World Champions Mat Belcher (QLD) and Will Ryan (QLD) currently training at the Olympic sailing venue in Rio de Janeiro, the pair made the most of being the top ranked Australian men's 470 crew in Melbourne:
"It's been a very good battle all week. All boats have been very close to each other every race we have done. It's been exciting and interesting," Patrick said after racing
The pair is coached by two-time 470 Olympic gold medallist Malcolm Page, a relationship that began two years again when Page retired from Olympic competition.
Their results at the ISAF Sailing World Championship in Santander in September only recently qualified the brothers for the Australian Sailing Squad.
Australian Sailing Team's young team of Sasha Ryan (QLD) and Amelia Catt (TAS) won the women's 470 fleet with straight wins, but not without a close battle as they raced within the Men's fleet – an opportunity the pair enjoyed as Amelia Catt said: "It's great to come away with a win today! Although there were only two boats entered in the women 470, we were very pleased to race with the men's fleet the entire week, including the medal race."
Skipper Sasha Ryan added: "We only just teamed up earlier in the year so it has all been about processes and building the team at this regatta. We feel like a lot of things have come together this week and its been good to race with the boys".
"I think they're a little bit more aggressive than the women usually, so it's been a real challenge for us, but really good fun too!"
Finn
In the World Cup Finn fleet Ed Wright (GBR), his mate and former countryman now living in and sailing for Australia, Oli Tweddell, and 21 year-old Jake Lilley battled it out. It was the Brit relegating Tweddel to the silver medal position for the fourth consecutive year.
"I should have given him a worse boat, it was already leaking but I should have made sure it leaked a bit more," offered Tweddell, silver medallist and Australia's country qualifier for Abu Dhabi. "All in all, I'm really pleased with how it all went this week and I'm looking forward to keep on training hard and moving forward to the next event, which is Miami at the end of January", he added.
Third overall at the end of the Finn's eight race series was Jake Lilley, who finished the medal race one spot ahead of Tweddell. Lilley finished the year in Melbourne after a tense series of competitions and is now looking forward to the holidays as well as ramping it all up again in the new year:
"We've had a huge couple of months since the Worlds and I've had one day off in the last three weeks of racing", Lilley said. "We've made some good progress and to come into this week and to know that I was on the back foot and to still keep it close was a real testament to the hard work we have put in over the year."
"I'm really looking forward to the next year and the possibilities it brings. Until then I will take a bit of time off over Christmas and new year and then get back into it with a big program leading into Miami and then onto Europe after that."
Summary
Thirteen Olympic and Paralympic Australian Sailing Team (AST) athletes and 30 Australian Sailing Squad (ASS) members battled it out on home waters on Port Phillip in nine Olympic and in two Paralympic boat classes at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne (8-14 December 2014) amongst 185 Olympic boats and 306 Invited class boats from a total of 34 countries.
Melbourne kick started the ISAF World Cup series before the sailors head to the USA, France, Great Britain and an Asian venue. The series will culminate in the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final Abu Dhabi.
With the ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne being an ISAF Sailing World Cup Final qualification event, the following AST/ASS sailors have qualified as winners and/or as the home country representative for the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final to be held in Abu Dhabi at the end of October 2015:
49er – Nathan Outteridge & Iain Jensen.
49erFX – Tess Lloyd & Caitlin Elks.
Laser – Tom Burton.
Nacra 17 – Jason Waterhouse & Lisa Darmanin.
RS:X – Joanna Sterling.
Men's 470 – Alexander & Patrick Conway.
Women's 470 – Sasha Ryan & Amelia Catt.
Finn – Oliver Tweddell.
Laser Radial – Ashley Stoddart (AUS).
Results are available here: www.sailing.org/worldcup/results/index.php