ISAF Sailing World Cup – Slingsby guaranteed Gold at Sail Melbourne

by Craig Heydon on 11 Nov 2011 Sail Melbourne 2011 - Australia’s Tom Slingsby has wrapped up the Laser class title with a day to spare at the opening round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup, being held on Port Phillip this week.

Slingsby heads into the final 10 boat double point medal race with a 19 point lead over Great Britain’s Nick Thompson with Australian Ashley Brunning third.

'It’s all done and I like that feeling, there’s no pressure now which is always a good thing,' said Slingsby. 'Going into tomorrow I just know that I have to sail well and sail the course properly and stay out of the way of everyone competing for the other medals.'

The triple Laser World Champion and current world number one has finished in the top three in all but one of the 10 races at Sail Melbourne with his results in a range of conditions a good boost heading into next month’s Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championship.

Slingsby and Brunning will be joined in the medal race by two other Australians with Tom Burton and Ryan Palk also finishing in the top 10.

While Slingsby already has already grabbed his medal a number of other Australian sailors are in a great position to bring home a bag full of medals on the final day of racing.

In the 49er class Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen head into the medal race with a four point lead over fellow Australians Will and Sam Phillips, with New Zealanders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke three points further back in third.

Outteridge and Jensen had three seconds and a first in the day’s four races with the top three boats all picking up a race win on day five.

'It’s really close with just four points in it,' said Outteridge. 'Ideally we’d like to be ahead of Will and Sam in the race tomorrow to make it safe but at the end of the day we’ve just got to be one spot behind to get it.

'The pressure will be on them a bit to try and do something to get up to us and if we make a mistake it will probably cost us the event,' he said.

New Australian 470 women’s pairing Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell have extended their lead at the top of the class following a pair of wins in the light conditions.

Rechichi and Stowell now lead Japan’s Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata by seven points with just the medal race remaining.

'The results this week are a lot more than we could have hoped for this early on,' said Rechichi. 'We’ve got a really, really, long way to go but it’s positive to be back in the game.

'To finish the week with six wins in a small but very competitive fleet and to also beat the men a couple of times is a great start for us,' she said.

The light conditions shuffled the pack in the 470 men’s fleet with Australian Sailing Squad members Sam Kivell and Will Ryan moving to second overall, ahead of reigning World Champions Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page who are in third.

Kivell and Ryan won the opening race of the day before finishing the day with an eighth and head into the medal race three points behind the first placed American crew, Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl.

Belcher and Page are four points further back in third following a sixth and a fifth in the day’s two races.

'Tomorrow we’ll go out there and race like it’s any race,' said Belcher. 'We’re here to win and we’ll fight hard and if the opportunity presents we’ll take it, we’ve seen many times before that anything can happen in a medal race.'

Jessica Crisp has moved herself into second overall in the RS:X class, finishing the day with a race win and a second to be seven points behind the leader, Great Britain’s Bryony Shaw.

Crisp will have Flavia Tartaglini hot on her heels in the medal race with the Italian currently just three points behind.

In the Laser Radial fleet Krystal Weir has moved herself up to third overall after a seventh, 11th and fourth in Friday’s three races.

Weir will be fighting hard to bring home the Bronze medal with fourth and fifth tied on points just three behind her.

Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch continued their strong second half of the regatta with a win and two second place finishes in the Skud 18 Paralympic class leaving them second overall.

'We won the day today which was awesome,' said Fitzgibbon. 'We’re getting back into the swing of things and feeling better, we’re still battling with the old boat but are really enjoying the challenge.

'Liesl and I are building our partnership well and we’ve got our eyes on our World Championships which will be held in Florida in January,' he said. 'It’s our final Paralympic Games qualification regatta and all of the Australian crews will be keen to do well so it’s all on.'

Great Britain’s Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell have wrapped up the regatta with a race still to run on Saturday, while two Australian crews, Jamie Dunross and Rachael Cox and Ame Barnbrook and Lindsay Mason are third and fourth respectively, just two points apart.

Australian Sailing Squad member Matt Bugg has claimed the 2.4mR class with a race to spare following a dominant week where he won eight of the nine races, with a second his worst finish.

'I’ve been training a lot at home recently, working on all the things I did wrong in Europe this year and trying to put those things right,' said Bugg. 'I’m really happy with the approach we’ve taken to this regatta and am thrilled with the Australian Sailing Team website