SAILING: Australia’s sailors wrapped up the international regatta in Medemblik, The Netherlands with three medals in Olympic events on Saturday.
Western Australian Matt Wearn won the Laser, Jake Lilley (QLD) took the silver in the Finn class and Joel Turner (QLD) and Lewis Brake (QLD) won the bronze in the 49er.
Australia’s young guns proved the depth of the current Australian Sailing Team and Squad by posting medal winning results despite the absence of top sailors such as Tom Burton (NSW), Mat Belcher (QLD) and Will Ryan (QLD) as well as Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW), who will join the team again for the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Weymouth (8-14 June).
Australia was represented with sixteen boats in nine of the ten Olympic events and managed to qualify eleven crews in eight events for the final top-ten medal races on Saturday.
Raced over five days, the regatta is part of the Eurosaf Champions Sailing Cup and a qualifier for the upcoming ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth (8-14 June 2015) for those crews who had not yet qualified.
Crews that secured their qualification for Weymouth were Will Phillips (VIC) and James Wierzbowski (VIC) in the 49er, Haylee Outteridge (NSW) and Sarah Cook (NSW) in the 49erFX, Mitch Kennedy (QLD) and former ASS member Jeremy O’Connell (VIC) in the Laser class, as well as Carrie Smith (WA) and Jaime Ryan (QLD) in the 470W. All Australian Sailing Team crews already qualified at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Hyères at the end of April.
The ISAF Sailing World Cup in Weymouth will thus see the full Australian Sailing Team and Squad in action again, with only two 470M development crews not to compete.
Men's One Person Dinghy – Laser
In a Laser fleet of over 140 boats Matt Wearn (WA) and Luke Elliott (WA) qualified for the final top-ten, double points Medal Race.
Wearn sailed a consistently strong regatta, taking the lead on the opening day and taking turns for second and first with the Netherland’s Rutger van Schaardenburg over the following days.
Going into the final medal race, the 19-year-old was in the lead, but only one point separated him from the Dutch in second.
In an extremely close Medal Race Wearn claimed the gold after finishing fourth, two places ahead of van Schaardenburg.
“It was an extremely tricky race. Every time I thought I had it, Rutger would come back. He definitely made it hard for me, but in the end it was really good,” Wearn said after the race.
“It’s a big step to win this event. I’ve had a couple seconds over the last few years, but have not be able to seal the win, so it’s great to finally get the win under my belt and hopefully it’s not the last.”
I will head to Weymouth for the World Cup next, then straight to Canada for the Worlds and hopefully with those two regattas I can qualify for Rio (test event).”
Wearn faces a tense battle with Australia’s current Laser World number one Tom Burton – who did not contest the regatta – for the Australian spot at next year’s Rio Olympic Games, with ISAF regulations permitting countries only one entrant per nation.
Luke Elliott finished off a strong regatta by coming second in the Medal Race and finishing seventh overall. Fellow squad member Mitch Kennedy (QLD) finished the event in 20th.
Men's One Person Dinghy (Heavyweight) – Finn
Both of Australia’s Finn sailors had qualified for the final Medal Race with Oliver Tweddell (VIC) going into the final round ranked sixth and Jake Lilley (QLD) ranked second.
Lilley, who had just finished second at the Finn Junior European Championships a couple of weeks ago, built up his performance during the week, posting two race wins over the last two days of final series racing and cementing his second position.
“This week didn’t go as smoothly as it might have looked on the scoreboard. I was actually pretty sick the first two days and contemplating retiring. But I had a good team around me to get me through the week and to put in some good races, which I’m happy about,” Lilley explained after racing.
“The season is starting to come around nicely with some good results at the Europeans and now to finish here with the silver medal and I will look to keep building on this for the rest of the season.”
Tweddell finished the event in fifth, with both sailors vying for the Olympic berth and aiming to build on their performances at the Sailing World Cup in Weymouth next.
Men’s Skiff – 49er
Young guns Joel Turner (QLD) and Lewis Brake (QLD) charged into the lead of the 49er on the second day of the event, but then dropped back into third, a podium position that they held up till the end.
“It’s been both interesting and exciting,” said Turner.
“Lewis and I have not really been performing too well this European season and coming here with a fair bit of breeze we finally started sailing well together. We’re really happy we are performing well again and it’s been a fun regatta.”
“This regatta has been more of a warm-up and training regatta in the lead up to Weymouth where we’ll head tomorrow for training and then hopefully some good results at the World Cup.”
David Gilmour (WA) and his crew Rhys Mara (VIC) did not have the best regatta and dropped into 20th over the opening two days of the 49er class. The pair managed to climb back up the ladder into 13th overall and finished the regatta on a high by winning the last race.
New combination Will Phillips (VIC) and James Wierzbowski (VIC) finished in 18th overall, which secured them the qualifying spot for the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Weymouth.
Women’s Skiff – 49erFX
Both Australian Sailing Squad’s Women’s 49erFX crews qualified for the final medal race with Tess Lloyd (VIC) and Caitlin Elks (WA) finishing the regatta in sixth and Haylee Outteridge (NSW) and Sarah Cook (NSW) in seventh.
It was the fist international medal race for the still new combination of Outteridge and Cook and the seventh place also secured the pair the qualifying spot for the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Weymouth.
“We are really pleased we have qualified for Weymouth as it allows us to compete against the top FX teams and work towards our campaign goals. And it’s great to finish seventh in our only second international event together,” Outteridge said after securing the qualifying spot.
“It was a really challenging regatta, but we are really pleased with the progress we have made this week and have enjoyed racing here as it has helped us prepare for the key events this summer, which are the Weymouth World Cup and the Europeans in Porto in July.”
In other results, both Australian Nacra 17 crews racing at the regatta qualified for the Medal Race with Euan McNicol (NSW) and Lucinda Whitty (NSW) finishing the event in fifth and Darren Bundock (NSW) and Nina Curtis (NSW) following in seventh.
In the Laser Radial Ashley Stoddart (QLD) steadily climbed up the results ladder throughout the regatta to just scrape into her first Medal Race of 2015 by one point and to finish the event in ninth. Windsurfer Joanna Sterling (QLD) also made the Medal Race and finished the regatta in tenth.
In other Olympic class events and following a stint on the sidelines through illness, Carrie Smith (WA) returned to the regatta action in the Netherlands in the women’s 470 alongside crew Jaime Ryan (QLD) with the pair qualifying for the top-ten Medal Race and ticking the box to qualify for the Weymouth World Cup. They did not contest the medal race for extra recovery time, but finished the regatta in ninth.
New Australian Sailing Squad’s combination of Angus Galloway (QLD) and Joshua Dawson (NSW) finished in overall 29th and missed out of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth qualification
Men's One Person Dinghy – Laser
- · Matthew Wearn (WA/WAIS) – AST: 1, 2, 2, (5), 3, 2, 4, 4, 4 – 2nd
- · Luke Elliott (WA/WAIS) – ASS: 6, (15), 9, 14, 1, 6, 10, 15, 4 – 7th
- · Mitchell Kennedy (QLD/QAS) – ASS: 12, 17, 4, 7, 21, 25, (36), 16, 19 – 20th
- . Jeremy O’Connell (VIC): 20, 12, 10, 11, 17, 24, 21, 35, (41) – 28th
Women's One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial
- · Ashley Stoddart (QLD/QAS) – ASS: 14, 7, (42 BFD), 21, 7, 11, 9, 7, 5 – 9th
Men's One Person Dinghy (Heavyweight) – Finn
- · Jake Lilley (QLD/QAS) – ASS: 2, 5, (9), 6, 2, 1, 2, 1, 7 – 2nd
- · Oliver Tweddell (VIC/VIS) – ASS: 9, (13), 4, 3, 3, 8, 10, 8, 6 – 5th
Men’s Skiff – 49er
- · Joel Turner (AST – QLD/QAS) & Lewis Brake (ASS – QLD/QAS) – ASS: 1, 2, 5, 2, 16, 5, (22), 2, 5, 7 – 3rd
- · David Gilmour (WA/WAIS) & Rhys Mara (VIC/VIS) – AST: 8, 10, 4, 13, 10, (19), 9, 8, 17, 1 – 13th
- · Will Phillips (VIC/VIS) & James Wierzbowski (VIC/VIS) – ASS: 14, 8, 8, 6, 13, 5, (24), 7, 21 – 18th
Women's Skiff – 49erFX
- · Tess Lloyd (VIC/VIS) & Caitlin Elks (WA/WAIS) – ASS: 1, 4, 4, 5, (25OCS), 3, 25 OCS, 13, 5, 5, 4, `4, 4 – 6th
- · Haylee Outteridge (NSW) & Sarah Cook (NSW) – ASS: 2, 11, (15), 10, 4, 6, 4, 8, 12, 7, 7, 7, 9 – 7th
Mixed Multihull – Nacra17
- · Euan McNicol (NSW) & Lucinda Whitty (NSW) – ASS: 14, 16, 3, 1, 5, 1, 4, 10, 10, (28), 12, 3 – 5th
- · Darren Bundock (NSW) & Nina Curtis (NSW) – AST: 2, 2, 15, 4, 15, 9, 5, (26), 6, 12, 8, 4 – 4th
Women's Windsurfer – RS:X
- · Joanna Sterling (QLD/QAS) – ASS: (24), 11, 11, 5, 11.9 RDG, 5, 14, 5, 16, 15, 14, 11, 9 – 10th
Women's Two Person Dinghy – 470W
- · Carrie Smith (WA/WAIS) & Jaime Ryan (QLD/QAS) – ASS: 17, 18, 4, 2, 12, 7, 22 (DNC) – 9th
Men’s Two Person Dingy – 470M
- · Angus Galloway (QLD/QAS) & Joshua Dawson (NSW) – ASS: (37), 25, 21, 3, 36, 27, 30, 27 – 29th
