SAILING: Australian Sailing’s Finn sailors Jake Lilley (QLD) and Oliver Tweddell (VIC) have finished the 2015 Finn Gold Cup, the Finn Class World Championship, in Takapuna, New Zealand ranked 19th and 22nd respectively.
Lilley and Tweddell, coached by US Olympic silver medallist John Bertrand, both missed out qualifying for the medal race after finishing outside of the top ten at the conclusion of yesterday’s (Saturday, 28 November) final day of fleet racing. Today’s final race scheduled for boats ranked outside the top ten was cancelled due to the lack of wind. Yesterday’s rankings stand as the final World Championship result.
Queenslander Jake Lilley made up for a week of average results by posting two top ten finishes over the last two days, which saw him climb up from 23rd into 19th on the last day and finish the event three spots ahead of his team mate Oliver Tweddell.
For both sailors it was not the result World #2 Jake Lilley and World #6 Oliver Tweddell had hoped for in the 75-boat fleet and consequently the disappointment was high.
“We’ve been having tricky conditions in Takapuna. Fortunately we had a bit more breeze yesterday, still a lot of shifts and with all the ups and downs we’ve had it’s been a really tough week of racing. I’ve had a really tough week, actually it’s been a bit of a nightmare,” a disappointed Jake Lilley said.
“Yesterday morning I woke up and was channelling a bit of Jimmy Spithill and Tom Slingsby and had to do some form of come back and try my best and move up on the overall results ladder. I got to 19th, which is still very disappointing and it has highlighted what we need to go away with and work on.”
“In the lead up we were sailing really well and were very happy with how things were going and had high expectations. 19th is not where we wanted to be and it was disappointing again that the final race didn’t happen with no additional chance for a come back.”
Australian Sailing Squad’s Oliver Tweddell (VIC) had been leading over his teammate for most of the week and went into the final race day ranked 15th, but a 38th and 39th saw him drop down the ranks to finish the event in overall 22nd.
“Yesterday was a pretty rough day for me. I came into it in quite a decent position and within strike of the medal race and then just didn’t sail very well at all. I had two really deep races, which dropped me miles out of the leader board so it was a rough day,” Oliver Tweddell said self-critically.
“Up until then I was quite happy with my sailing. I made a couple of mistakes, which resulted in some deep races, but up until today I was quite happy and after that final day I’m obviously quite gutted.”
“That’s sailing unfortunately. It doesn’t always go your way. Very unfortunate too to miss that last race today with no opportunity to bounce back and to get myself into a decent position.”
Oliver Tweddell will contest the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne from next week (9 – 13 December 2015), while Jake Lilley will be heading to Rio de Janeiro for a training event.
Jake Lilley secured country qualification for the Finn class for Rio 2016 at last year’s ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain. But who will be representing Australia in the class is yet to be decided with selection ongoing.
Racing at the Finn Gold Cup ran from Tuesday 24 to Sunday 29 November with ten races scheduled until Saturday 28 November and with a medal race and final race on Sunday 29 November.
AUSTRALIAN SAILING TEAM
