Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships - Day 1
by ISAF 3 Dec 2011 13:21 GMT
3-18 December 2011
Women's Match Racing on day 1 of Perth 2011 © Ocean Images
ISAF Youth Worlds sailors come to the forefront in Perth
At the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships many of the sailors on show have come through the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships, which will celebrate its 42nd edition at Dublin, Ireland from 12-21 July 2012.
Ben Ainslie (GBR), Robert Scheidt (BRA) and Alessandra Sensini (ITA) started their glittery careers at the ISAF Youth Worlds and have gone on to achieve World Championship and Olympic glory in their respective classes.
Following the 2011 edition in Zadar, Croatia a new breed of sailors are coming to the forefront and aiming to qualify their country for the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition.
For Puerto Rico’s Raul Rios he is sailing at his first ISAF Worlds in the Men’s 470 and with three ISAF Youth Worlds under his belt he was somewhat of a veteran in Croatia. But the youngster is not fazed by the move from the 420 to the 470 and from youth to senior sailing.
“There’s a big difference here in Perth, especially moving from youth to Olympic classes,” said Rios. “Here we have professional sailors and they are some of the best in the world.”
Rios was part of the Athlete Participation Programme in 2010 and 2011 and was guided through the championship under the World Youth Sailing Trust Coach, “Seeing different points of view from different coaches really helped me a lot. I gained information from everyone bit by bit and that helped me decide what I wanted for my boat.
“The 2011 coach, Huge Styles, sailed catamarans, so he helped me a lot even though we sail 420s and we were able to sail at maximum speed at every angle.”
At this year’s Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships, Rios is not alone as the only APP athlete from the 2011 Youth Worlds. Joining him is compatriot Ramon Gonzalez who will be sailing the Laser, RS:X Boys gold medallist Cho Wonwoo (KOR) will be on the Men’s RS:X starting line, as will Matias Caseco Bazo (PER).
Since its introduction in 2002, APP has helped over 150 sailors and has proven to be a great success with sailors from previous years slowly moving up the ranks. At just 14 years old Pavlos Kontides (CYP) received funding at the 2004 edition in Gdynia, Poland. He has since sailed at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and worked his way to World #6 in the Laser.
And like Kontides, Rios has his own dream of competing at an Olympic Sailing Competition, “Our goal is to qualify for London 2012. I’ve been sailing Snipes up until the end of October because I was at the Pan American Games so now it is full 470 and try here in Perth or in Barcelona to qualify for London.”
APP has enabled new countries to compete at ISAF Youth Worlds for the first time and with Kontides showcasing the success be prepared to see Rios, Wonwoo and Bazo at the top of their ISAF World Rankings in the near future.
The Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships website will bring you results, tracking, live updates and all the latest news both on and off the water.
Day One Group A Women’s Match Racing: Tricky winds challenge crews on Fremantle’s Inner Harbour (report from Will Davies, Perth 2011)
The first day of competition at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships saw Fremantle’s Inner Harbour come to life with the Women’s Match Racing crews setting sail in stifling 36C heat.
AUS-1 (Souter) and the Finnish crew (Lehtinen) led the day’s racing.
Despite difficult conditions and shifty winds as the day progressed, world number one Tunnicliffe (USA-1) sailed true to form, leading her team to win three of three.
“It was extremely tricky, the wind was very very shifty but it provided interesting conditions and kept you on your game,” Tunnicliffe said.
The first flight of the day saw world number five, Nicky Souter guiding AUS-1, in a neck-and-neck battle with Portugal, taking the lead mere metres from the finish line.
Likewise, Finland, ranked world number nine, found competition difficult against their first opponent CAN-1, with the finish very close.
World number 10, FRA-2, with Anne Claire le Berre at the helm, could have started better, winning only two of four races, with lower ranked teams beating them over the finish line.
After a morning of hot easterlies, the onset of a cooler mid-afternoon sea breeze delayed the races while the course was moved closer to the ocean and away from the stands.
The afternoon’s first flight, flight five, saw superb tactics from Ferris Choat (CAN-1) land her crew an unexpected win against world number six, Russia.
Tunnicliffe described the afternoon’s conditions as light, but also very puffy and very shifty, saying “if you got a good start and were able to sail the shifts you had an easier time.”
Women’s Match Racing continues in the Inner Harbour Sunday from 1000 with the beginning of racing in Group B.
Group A flights eight, nine and ten will resume on Monday morning, 5 December.
Day 1 Highlights Video:
www.perth2011.com/
Americans off to winning start (from Dana Paxton)
The 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships kicked off today in Freemantle, Australia with the first of two days in Women’s Match Racing. Anna Tunnicliffe’s (Plantation, Fla.) “Team Maclaren” of Molly Vandemoer (Stanford, Calif.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) went 3-0 in the round robin against teams from Denmark, Canada and Brazil. Racing took place on the Swan River/Freemantle Inner Harbour within close view of the public docks.
“The river is really tricky to sail in and we’re happy to get three wins in those conditions,” said Tunnicliffe, who was recently named ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year. “All day the wind was coming over the sheds and dropping down. It was hard to see what was coming at us, and we were playing the shifts on a very short course.”
Racing continues tomorrow in Women’s Match Racing with Genny Tulloch’s (Sausalito, Calif.) “Team GETSailing” of Alice Manard Leonard (New Orleans, La./East Haven, Conn.) and Jenn Chamberlin (Washington, D.C.) will make their debut in the round robin. They’re scheduled to race against teams representing Croatia, Sweden, Australia and Peru.
“With women’s match racing making its debut at the London 2012 Olympic Games, this world championship is an important step toward our goal of assessing the international competition as lead into the New Year,” said Olympic Sailing Committee Chairman Dean Brenner (Wallingford, Conn.). “And with 32 international teams here, Anna’s and Genny’s teams will get the chance to race against some of the best teams, giving them more experience in the boats as well as more information about their future competition.”
The rest of the USSTAG athletes not racing spent the day with registration, measurement or some on-the-water training. Laser sailor Clay Johnson (Toms River, N.J.) wrote about his experience in Perth, to date: www.claysails.com/node/411
Fleet racing is scheduled to begin on Monday, Dec. 5 in Women’s RS:X, Laser Radial, Finn and Men’s 470 classes. The balance of classes – Men’s RS:X, Laser, Women’s 470 and 49er – race Dec 12-18 with the Star class scheduled to race Dec. 11-17.
To follow the live blog from event organizers and link to live tracking, please visit www.perth2011.com/live-blog
For a roster of US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics athletes competing in this event, please visit sailingteams.ussailing.org/Events/Perth_2011.htm