Eight Australian crews featured in the medal races at the 2006 ISAF World Sailing Games in Austria with five winning medals.

Tom Slingsby led the way for Australia with victory in the Laser fleet. Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby followed with victory in the non-Olympic Hobie Tiger class, and then Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page won gold in the 470s.

This was the third consecutive world title for Wilmot and Page.

The three gold medals significantly helped Australia to forge ahead of the other nations and win the coveted Kings Trophy, which is awarded to the best performing team at the event.

The hugely successful day for Australia was capped off with a silver medal to former world youth champions Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson in the 470s and a bronze medal for Sarah Blanck in the Laser Radials.

Laser radial is the new women’s single-handed Olympic event, replacing the Europe dinghy. Blanck, who is a former world champion in the new Olympic class, was competing in her first major international competition since switching from the Europe dinghy class where she placed 4th at the Athens Olympics.

All the medal winning crews are members of the current Australian Sailing Team and are campaigning for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The other three Australian crews also performed well on the final day of competition with Belinda Zanesco and Bridget Waterhouse finishing 5th in the Hobie 16s (non-Olympic), Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin 5th in the 49ers and Brendan Casey 8th in the Laser.

Outteridge, a three-time world youth champion, was remarkably sailing in his first international event in the Olympic class.

Head Coach Victor Kovalenko was very happy with the performances and said "we are very proud to make Australia the number one country at this event. All of our Team contributed to this fantastic achievement."

Most of the Team have now disbursed for various other regattas around the world with several of the group heading to the Netherlands for the ISAF Grade 1 Holland Regatta.

Yachting Australia