ISAF Sailing Worlds - Australia qualifies for Rio Olympic Laser class

by Cora Zillich on 14 Sep 2014 The Laser - Men’s One Person Dingy and Laser Radial - Women’s One Person Dingy - fleets started the Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships and concluded the qualification series after two days of racing on Saturday, 13 September local time.

Australia is represented by ten sailors across the Laser and Radial events, which featured massive fleets of 147 and 120 respectively in the qualification series.

After two days with light winds and several postponements on land and on the water, four races were sailed in the qualification series with sailors qualifying for gold (top 49), silver and bronze fleets in the Laser and gold (top 60) and silver in the radial.

With 50% of Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition spots available at the Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships, the four race qualification series already decided the 23 Laser places on offer at Santander 2014 as the fleet divides up into gold, silver and bronze packs.

Twenty four nations make up the 49-boat Santander 2014 Laser gold fleet but with Brazil automatically receiving a spot as host nation the 23 Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition places available at Santander 2014 have been decided. The Laser is thus the first boat class Australia has qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Tom Slingsby won the gold medal for Australia in London 2012 and also now the Australian Laser fleet, coached by Olympic medallist Michael Blackburn, is looking strong.

Australia goes into the final series, commencing on Sunday, 14 September with two sailors in the Laser top ten: Tom Burton (NSW) in third and Ryan Palk (QLD) in sixth. In addition Mat Wearn (WA), Luke Elliott (WA) and Ashley Brunning (NSW) qualified for the Laser gold fleet as well as Krystal Weir (VIC) for the Laser Radial gold fleet.

On Sunday, men’s and women’s 470 classes join the action with reigning World Champions Mat Belcher (QLD) and Will Ryan (QLD) starting their campaign to defend their 2013 title and Olympic Champion Mat Belcher aiming to make it five consecutive World Championship wins.

In the record 76 nation Men's Laser fleet, four races were complete over the last two days.

After ranking overall second after the first two races on Friday and posting an eight and second place in Saturday’s racing, Burton goes into the final series, in overall third and is in the game for more:

'I’m definitely in the game, which is the plan', he said after racing. 'Qualifying series doesn’t really mean that much. It’s good for me to not have a really bad race in there and to not have a drop as you are only allowed to drop one result at this event. It’s good to not have that yet so I can hopefully save that to later. I’m not sailing my best yet, so I’m happy with the results I’m getting – for the moment anyway.'

Five Australians have qualified to start tomorrow’s three day final series in the gold fleet. Australian Sailing Squad’s Ryan Palk and Ashley Brunning (47th) both won the second race of their respective fleets on Saturday and will join Burton and Matt Wearn (13th) as well as Luke Elliott (42nd) in the gold fleet. With this result Palk joins Burton in the current top ten, but is realistic that there is still a lot of work ahead:

'It’s final series now and I want to stay solid and consistent. I’ve been in similar positions before and gone into final series and had one or two bad days, which costs a lot in an event like this. So I just want to keep chipping away and keep doing the right things I know I can do.'

'I got a bit of experience now, so I've got to cash in on that and be consistent. I’m not going to concentrate to much on Tom and Matt, but obviously it would be great to be the first Aussie, but there still 150 other guys to beat.'

The fleet is now split into gold, silver and bronze fleets. A six race final series will be followed by a double points Medal Race on Thursday, 18 September.

In the qualifying series the 120 boat Women's Laser Radial Fleet was split into two groups of 60. In this size fleet a good start was critical especially as the right hand side of the course was favoured.

Those sailors that were able to put together two single figure results were guaranteed a place in the top ten whilst others were having 'death or glory' results not necessarily in that order.

The Australian Sailing Squad’s Radial girls had a bit of both with Krystal Weir making the cut for the top 60 for the gold gleet by finishing overall 48th and 13th in today’s first race. The London 2012 Olympian has returned to Laser Radial sailing after a break and sailing in other classes and is finding her way back into the game as she explained after racing:

'I’ve been back in the Radial for six months. There are lots of things to work on, that’s for sure and the game has changed a bit.'

'Today, it was very tricky out there and one of those days where you can’t really predict what’s going on with some crazy storm cells over the land, which made it interesting. I should have posted in the top ten today and I’m a little bit disappointed with that race, but I’m getting my mojo back.'

Silver fleet it will be for Ashley Stoddart (QLD) and Anna Philip (VIC). After a strong season Stoddart did not hide her disappointment after the race:

'The conditions have been really tough. I’ve been trying my hardest but obviously I haven’t sailed well enough. The current has been tricky and the conditions haven’t been exactly what we’ve been training in. But I guess I have to move on and take away what I can from this. I will learn as much as I can from this now, from big fleet racing and from results like this and try to keep a positive mindset going into the silver fleet racing.'

In addition to the Lasers, three races were completed on Saturday in the Women’s RS:X windsurfing class with Australian Sailing Squad’s Jo Sterling currently 38th overall with two qualifying races remaining tomorrow.

Schedule of Racing:

12-18 September, Laser and Laser Radial
13-19 September, RS:X Women
14-20 September, 470 Men and 470 Women
15-21 September, 49er, 49erFX, Finn and Nacra 17

2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships Australian Sailing Team and Squad Race Results as of Saturday, 13 September 2014:

Laser (Men's One Person Dinghy)
3rd Tom Burton (NSW) – AST (5, 3, 8, 2)
6th Ryan Palk (QLD) – ASS (5, 9, 13, 1)
13th Matthew Wearn (WA) – AST (7, 2, 10, 29)
42nd Luke Elliott (NSW) – ASS (20, 3, 15, 27)
47th Ashley Brunning (NSW) – ASS (11, 30, 50 BFD, 1)
51st Mitchell Kennedy (QLD) – ASS (21, 8, 17, 18)
61st Jeremy O’Connell (VIC) – ASS (43, 5, 17, 31)

Olympic Qualifying: Top 23 countries, Racing: 12-18 September

Laser Radial (Women's One Person Dinghy)
48th Krystal Weir (VIC) – ASS (43, 22, 13, 25)
72nd Anna Philip (VIC) – Youth Bridging (23, 25, 47, 30)
110th Ashley Stoddart (QLD) – ASS (49, 46, 46, 53)

RS:X (Women's Windsurfer)
38th Joanna Sterling (QLD) – ASS (12, 18, 23)

Olympic Qualifying: Top 13 countries, Racing: 13-19 September

Laser Men – Overall Results

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race				Points
				1	2	3	4	Total	Net
1	BRA	BRA 206755	Robert Scheidt	(13)	2	1	3	19.00	6.00
2	NED	NED 204566	Nicholas Heiner	3	(10)	1	4	18.00	8.00
3	AUS	AUS 199012	Tom Burton	5	3	(8)	2	18.00	10.00
4	BRA	BRA 206757	Bruno Fontes	4	7	(9)	3	23.00	14.00
5	SWE	SWE 199617	Jesper Stalheim	(12)	4	5	5	26.00	14.00
6	AUS	AUS 206019	Ryan Palk	5	9	(13)	1	28.00	15.00
7	NED	NED 206745	Rutger van Schaardenburg	14	1	1	(50) RET	66.00	16.00
8	USA	USA 182345	Charlie Buckingham	6	(23)	2	8	39.00	16.00
9	CYP	CYP 206766	Pavlos Kontides	(20)	12	4	1	37.00	17.00
10	GUA	GUA 204113	Juan Ignacio Maegli Aguero	3	1	(50) BFD	14	68.00	18.00
11	GBR	GBR 201402	Nick Thompson	1	(18)	11	7	37.00	19.00
12	USA	USA 194180	Christopher Barnard	7	(11)	10	2	30.00	19.00
13	AUS	AUS 199015	Matthew Wearn	7	2	10	(29)	48.00	19.00
14	NZL	NZL 196871	Sam Meech	12	6	2	(43)	63.00	20.00
15	NZL	NZL 197250	Thomas Saunders	11	5	(22)	5	43.00	21.00
16	CAN	CAN 197120	Lee Parkhill	8	7	6	(22)	43.00	21.00
17	GBR	GBR 206940	Lorenzo Chiavarini	2	14	(29)	6	51.00	22.00
18	ITA	ITA 188953	Giovanni Coccoluto	1	9	(36)	13	59.00	23.00
19	GER	GER 207189	Philipp Buhl	15	2	(20)	6	43.00	23.00
20	CRO	CRO 204731	Tonci Stipanovic	6	12	5	(27)	50.00	23.00

 

Laser Radial Women – Overall Results

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race				Points
				1	2	3	4	Total	Net
1	CZE	CZE 207167	Veronika Kozelska Fenclova	3	1	(12)	3	19.00	7.00
2	LTU	LTU 202781	Viktorija Andrulyte	(11)	3	1	4	19.00	8.00
3	NED	NED 206333	Marit Bouwmeester	(8)	1	2	7	18.00	10.00
4	CHN	CHN 201213	Dongshuang Zhang	5	4	(32)	1	42.00	10.00
5	BEL	BEL 207177	Emma Plasschaert	2	5	(24)	5	36.00	12.00
6	FIN	FIN 202670	Tuula Tenkanen	(20)	2	3	10	35.00	15.00
7	SWE	SWE 202659	Josefin Olsson	2	(16)	8	5	31.00	15.00
8	USA	USA 184454	Erika Reineke	1	(31)	9	8	49.00	18.00
9	GBR	GBR 206363	Chloe Martin	10	6	4	(16)	36.00	20.00
10	BEL	BEL 207179	Evi Van Acker	(15)	7	1	14	37.00	22.00
11	FRA	FRA 196544	Mathilde de Kerangat	(27)	15	6	3	51.00	24.00
12	ITA	ITA 206452	Joyce Floridia	5	9	10	(20)	44.00	24.00
13	DEN	DEN 207195	Sarah Gunni Toftedal	1	(29)	22	2	54.00	25.00
14	CRO	CRO 199082	Tina Mihelic	10	9	7	(39)	65.00	26.00
15	NZL	NZL 202441	Sara Winther	7	(19)	10	13	49.00	30.00
16	ISR	ISR 189296	Oren Jacob	4	(24)	13	14	55.00	31.00
17	GBR	GBR 206886	Hannah Snellgrove	9	(34)	5	17	65.00	31.00
18	FRA	FRA 204062	Pernelle Michon	8	17	(20)	6	51.00	31.00
19	DEN	DEN 207194	Anne-Marie Rindom	14	7	(16)	12	49.00	33.00
20	GBR	GBR 206251	Alison Young	13	12	(36)	8	69.00	33.00

 

RS:X Men – Overall Results

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race		Points
				1	2	Total	Net
1	FRA	FRA 77	Pierre le Coq	1	1	2.00	2.00
2	FRA	FRA 1	Louis Giard	1	3	4.00	4.00
3	POL	POL 82	Piotr Myszka	4	2	6.00	6.00
4	NED	NED 9	Kiran Badloe	2	5	7.00	7.00
5	FRA	FRA 6	Julien Bontemps	4	3	7.00	7.00
6	GER	GER 3	Toni Wilhelm	3	4	7.00	7.00
7	BRA	BRA 1	Ricardo Santos	7	1	8.00	8.00
8	POL	POL 126	Przemyslaw Miarczynski	2	7	9.00	9.00
9	GRE	GRE 8	Byron Kokkalanis	6	4	10.00	10.00
10	NED	NED 8	Dorian Van Rijsselberge	3	8	11.00	11.00
11	GBR	GBR 1	Nick Dempsey	5	6	11.00	11.00
12	ESP	ESP 7	Ivan Pastor Lafuente	11	2	13.00	13.00
13	ITA	ITA 88	Mattia Camboni	6	7	13.00	13.00
14	GBR	GBR 931	Tom Squires	5	10	15.00	15.00
15	POL	POL 182	Pawel Tarnowski	13	5	18.00	18.00
16	NZL	NZL 151	Jon-Paul Tobin	9	10	19.00	19.00
17	POR	ARG 8		14	6	20.00	20.00
18	SUI	SUI 36	Mateo Sanz Lanz	11	9	20.00	20.00
19	POR	POR 75	João Rodrigues	14	8	22.00	22.00
20	CHN	CHN 1	Aichen Wang	9	13	22.00	22.00

 

RS:X Women – Overall Results

Pos	Nation	Sail Number	Crew	Race			Points
				1	2	3	Total	Net
1	FRA	FRA 4	Charline Picon	1	1	(4)	6.00	2.00
2	MEX	MEX 9	Demita Vega de Lille	1	4	(17)	22.00	5.00
3	GBR	GBR 9	Bryony Shaw	5	(11)	1	17.00	6.00
4	FRA	FRA 22	Eugénie Ricard	(9)	1	5	15.00	6.00
5	POL	POL 8	Zofia Noceti-Klepacka	(16)	3	3	22.00	6.00
6	NED	NED 171	Lilian De Geus	2	(10)	5	17.00	7.00
7	GBR	GBR 30	Isobel Hamilton	6	2	(7)	15.00	8.00
8	POL	POL 21	Malgorzata Bialecka	(6)	5	3	14.00	8.00
9	ISR	ISR 10	Maayan Davidovich	4	(10)	6	20.00	10.00
10	ISR	ISR 9	Hadar Heller	(21)	9	2	32.00	11.00
11	BRA	BRA 8	Patricia Freitas	(9)	2	9	20.00	11.00
12	FIN	FIN 1	Tuuli Petäjä-Sirén	7	6	(15)	28.00	13.00
13	CHN	CHN 3	Qiaoshan Weng	13	(14)	1	28.00	14.00
14	RUS	RUS 271	Stefania Elfutina	(21)	12	2	35.00	14.00
15	ITA	ITA 157	Marta Maggetti	(12)	4	10	26.00	14.00
16	ITA	ITA 11	Laura Linares	7	7	(8)	22.00	14.00
17	NZL	NZL 8	Natalia Kosinska	10	5	(18)	33.00	15.00
18	ITA	ITA 46	Flavia Tartaglini	2	(17)	14	33.00	16.00
19	BRA	BRA 49	Bruna Martinelli Cesário de Mello	(20)	7	9	36.00	16.00
20	POL	POL 104	Kamila Smektala	8	8	(12)	28.00	16.00

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