Australian Sailing Squad at 2015 Finn World Championship

by Cora Zillich on 22 Nov 2015 Racing at the 2015 Finn Gold Cup, the Finn Class World Championship, gets under way on Tuesday, 24 November 2015 in Takapuna, New Zealand with Australian Sailing Squad’s Jake Lilley (QLD) and Oliver Tweddell (VIC) representing Australian Sailing.

87 sailors from 28 countries will be racing a series of ten fleet races, which will decide who goes through to Sunday’s (29 November 2015) medal race.

Australia secured country qualification for the Finn class for Rio 2016 at last year’s ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain. But who will be representing Australia in the class is yet to be decided.

With selection still ongoing the Finn World Cup will be an important event for the current World Number two Jake Lilley and World Number six Oliver Tweddell.

Jake Lilley has only been in the class just under two years but, although still a junior, he has been making his mark at the top with a steady series of good results. He represented Australia at the 2015 Rio Test event in August, where he finished sixth, after qualifying Australia in Santander. But Oliver Tweddell is ready to chase his teammate, which will make for a good battle this week.

“Since Brazil I’ve been spending some time with my training partners in Poland both training and racing, before returning home and putting in a lot of hours at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron in Manly. Since, I have made a trip for a few weeks to New Zealand and a second trip to warm-up in the Pre-Worlds regatta a few days before the Worlds,” Jake Lilley said about his preparation.

And asked about the internal Australian Sailing team battle he added: “I'm just focused on myself and executing exactly what we've been working on and sailing a consistent series to be right in the fight come the end of the week. The Pre-Worlds were really promising with only top three finishes from the races I contested.”

“It just shows the benefits of the hard work we've been putting in behind the scenes and highlights areas where scrutiny over the finer details will make the difference. The Worlds are always interesting with 90 boats on one start line and a lot of opportunities,” Jake Lilley said.

Both sailors have spent some weeks training in Takapuna in the lead up to the event and also Oliver Tweddell is looking forward to start racing.

“I have been training in Takapuna for a while, so I’m quite comfortable with how difficult the conditions are here. The weather is very similar to Melbourne, raining one minute, sunny the next, so I feel right at home here,” Oliver Tweddell said.

I am looking forward to racing against the best in the World next week, that's what it's all about. Lots of sailors are aiming to peak for this event, so it shall be great intense racing,” he added.

Lilley and Tweddell are coached by Australian Sailing’s Finn Coach and American Olympic bronze medallist John Bertrand.

The Finn Gold Cup runs from Saturday 21 to Sunday 29 November. Ten races are scheduled from Tuesday 24 to Saturday 28 November, with the medal race and final race on Sunday 29 November.

More information on the event visit website.

Australian Sailing 2015 Finn Gold Cup entries

- Jake Lilley (QLD/QAS/RQYS) – ASS
- Oliver Tweddell (VIC/VIS/SYC/SSBC) – ASS

Other Australian, non AST/ASS entries:

- Joseph McMillan (WSC)
- Rob McMillan (WSC)