The final day of round five of the ISAF Sailing World Cup has proven to be a golden one for the Australian Sailing Team with Tom Slingsby winning the Laser class while Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen claimed first in the 49ers in an action packed medal race.

Slingsby headed into the deciding medal race with a 16 point lead over second placed Nick Thompson of Great Britain knowing that he would have to keep his eye on his competitor to take the Gold medal.

“The medal race was really tricky, you had to really back yourself on what side you wanted to go which forced me to be a bit indecisive because I wanted to follow my competitors who were close to me on points and also sail my own race,” said Slingsby. “I ended up doing a bit of a mix and came home second by about a boat length to Paul Goodison which was a great result.”

Slingsby’s second place in the medal race, coupled with Nick Thompson’s ninth saw the Australian take the regatta victory by 25 points, a great result given that he finished outside the top ten at the same event last year.

“My last two grade one events, Sail for Gold in Weymouth and here have both been wins by 25 points, which seems to be a lucky number for me,” he said. “I’m really happy with the result and I’m sailing well so I’ve got everything to be pleased about at the moment.”

The route to the Gold medal wasn’t as straightforward for Outteridge and Jensen who had to put two boats between themselves and the first placed Austrians and hold off the third placed New Zealanders.

“We started the medal race off with a bit of match racing between us and the Austrians in the pre-start,” said Outteridge. “We started on port and around the first mark the Austrians were first, we were second and the Kiwis third so we had a bit on to put boats between us and Austria. It stayed that way for a bit then we hit the lead and in the bottom mark for the second time we managed to get a rule infringement on the Austrians and they ended up capsizing which definitely put two boats between us and them.”

“From then on all we had to do was stay in front of the Kiwis which we did, making it a very successful event for us, a bit stressful at times and there was a little bit of luck in there for us,” he said. “At first I didn’t realise that the Austrians went over, we went around the mark and I knew they were really close to us and then when I turned around and saw them capsized it was like alright we just had to stay ahead of the Kiwis and we’ve got it in the bag,” he said.

Jensen enjoyed the close Trans-Tasman battle with Peter Burling and Blair Tuke of New Zealand who they’ve trained with closely and competed against on home waters over the summer.

“It was pretty close between us and the Kiwis and around the bottom mark they were only two or three lengths behind us but we seemed to be moving through the water a bit better up the last beat and managed to extend a little on then, meaning all we had to do was hold it together on the downwind to win it.”

The medal race result gave Outteridge and Jensen a three point overall victory over Burling and Tuke in second place with the Austrian crew in third position.

In the RS:X class Jessica Crisp had a great run in the opening medal race of the day to finish second which saw her jump from her overnight seventh to be fifth overall. In the light, shifty conditions of the morning Crisp had a solid start and once in second position powered on, keeping Great Britain’s Bryony Shaw at bay and finishing behind Marina Alabau of Spain.

Krystal Weir powered home in the Laser Radial fleet, finishing the medal race in fourth position to move up to fifth overall in her return to the class. It was a great fight back from Weir who found herself rounding the top mark last on the second beat. Weir was still at the back of the fleet at the bottom mark and then headed to the right of the course which paid off as she moved through the fleet to fourth at the finish.

The Australian Women’s Match Racing Team crew of Nicky Souter, Nina Curtis and Olivia Price finished the regatta in seventh position after defeating Anna Kjellberg in the seventh and eighth playoff.

Yachting Australia