The Australian Sailing Team’s Tom Slingsby has dominated the 2010 Australian Laser Championship, winning an incredible 10 out of 11 races at the Adelaide Sailing Club.

Slingsby was unstoppable across the six days, winning the opening ten races, to take victory by 20 points from Christoph Bottoni from Switzerland with defending champion Ashley Brunning third.

“Every race was a new chance and a new opportunity to do well,” said Slingsby. “Everyone kept on saying, look how many you’ve won in a row, but I was just treating every race the same and kept on trying to duplicate what I was doing and it worked out really well.”

Slingsby’s dominance saw him wrap up the title with two races to spare, with second place going right down to the wire between Bottoni and Brunning.

Australian Sailing Development Squad athlete Brunning was in second going into the final day but it was Bottoni who was the star of the final day, banging the right corner when everyone else went left to take the race win by over a minute with Brunning crossing the line 15th. Bottoni’s victory saw him take second place by three points.

Racing took place in a range of conditions, but whether it was light, heavy or shifty the result was always the same with two-time Laser World Champion and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games representative Slingsby leading the fleet.

“We had some great conditions throughout the week, the first day was moderate, the second light and then the third was really windy, we got a bit of everything which made for some great racing,” he said.

The victory was Slingsby’s second Australian title and his third regatta win in a row, after standing on the top step of the podium at the Sail for Gold regatta in Weymouth in September and the recent Sail Sydney regatta.

“I’ve notched up three wins in a row so I’m on a bit of a roll at the moment, I’ll probably have a bit of a break for a month or so then get back into training and head over to Europe in May,” said Slingsby.

Yachting Australia