Two Golds and a Bronze for Aussies on final day of Sailing World Cup

by Craig Heydon on 24 Jun 2010 The Australian Sailing Team has won two Golds and a Bronze medal on the final day of round six of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Kiel, Germany.

Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page continued their dominance of the 470 men’s fleet at this regatta, finishing second in the medal race to claim the Gold medal and wrap up the 2009/2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup in the process.

Fellow Australian Tom Slingsby claimed his second successive ISAF Sailing World Cup round victory with a nine point win in the Laser fleet.

In the RS:X women’s class Jessica Crisp won the medal race to jump from sixth to third overall and claim the Bronze medal.

Belcher and Page led the 470 men’s class from start to finish, winning the four qualifying races and then picking up a second place in the medal race to give the pair a nine point victory over Anton and Ostling of Sweden and a second World Cup round victory of the year following a win in Melbourne last December.

The victory in Germany gives Belcher and Page an untouchable overall series lead heading into the final round in Weymouth, England, in August.

'We’re really happy with the result today, it all went well on the water and we came away with the round win and the overall World Cup victory,' said Belcher. 'The conditions were very tricky today, with the wind coming off the land between six and nine knots making it difficult to follow race strategy and keep an eye on the Croatians who were closest to us on points.'

'We planned on getting to the first shift and then reassess the situation,' he said. 'We started close to the boat and headed out to the right and at the first shift we had about a 100 to 150 metre lead and from then on sailed the shifts.'

'Today’s win is a good confidence boost heading into our World Championships in Holland next month and it’s also nice to win the World Cup with a round to spare,' said Belcher.

Coach Victor Kovalenko was impressed with the performance of Belcher and Page throughout the week in testing conditions.

'Mathew and Malcolm sailed phenomenally this week and I’m very proud of their performance,' said Kovalenko. 'They proved again that they’re great sailors but we’re in the business of sport and in sport you have to continue to prove yourself and the boys did that again.'

'The 470 fleet was very strong here with the current World and European Champion, the winners of a number of World Cup rounds this year and most of the top ten but in spite of this the boys proved that they’re good in strong winds, light winds and the medium winds that we had in the medal race today,' he said.

'As a team the Australians did very well here with Tom Slingsby also winning Gold and Jessica Crisp winning a Bronze, there’s still two years to go to London and a lot can happen but we’re on track as a team,' said Kovalenko.

Slingsby headed into the double point medal race with a four point lead over Canada’s Michael Leigh and in the light, tricky, conditions the Australian kept his competition in check, finishing the race third to give him a nine point win from American Clay Johnson.

Slingsby has had a great 2010 European summer winning the last round of the World Cup in Holland and then backing it up with a Bronze medal at the 2010 Laser European Championship in Estonia just two weeks ago.

The dual World Champion dominated the regatta in Germany, winning the opening three races before a third place in very light conditions put the Australian into the driving seat heading into the final day.

Fellow Australian Ryan Palk continued his phenomenal run this year winning in his first ever medal race to jump up the leader board to finish the regatta sixth overall and end up just six points off a Bronze medal.

Jessica Crisp continued the winning form for Australia, taking out the RS:X women’s medal race to leap from sixth position overnight to claim the Bronze medal. Crisp is making a habit of strong performances in the medal race following her second place race finish in Holland last month.

The three-time Olympian’s Bronze was her second top three finish of the 2009/2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup following her Gold medal at round one in Melbourne.

The Australian Women’s Match Racing crew of Katie Spithill, Jessica Eastwell and Angela Farrell headed into the final day knowing exactly what they needed to do to progress to the semi-finals. The Australians started the day down two to one to American Anna Tunnicliffe and needed to win the final two races to take the overall victory.

Spithill and crew started the day in style winning the first race to send the quarter-final to a fifth and final race. Tunnicliffe proved too strong in the final race progressing to the semi-finals three to two.

The Australians then headed into the sail-offs for fifth through to eighth coming up against Finland’s Silja Lehtinen first with the Australians winning one nil. Spithill and crew then backed that up with a win over Silke Hahlbrock of Germany to claim fifth position in the 24 team competition.