London 2012 Olympics 470 Champions- Look out – their mojo is back

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World team on 5 Aug 2012 With the highest of standards, the Australian pairing of Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page were upset on day one, after some port and starboard circle work delivered them a ninth placing in the second race of the 470 Olympic regatta.

But on day two they climbed into second place behind Britains Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell.

Today they hit the front with two strong wins. The two Australians were very relaxed when they came ashore.

Malcolm Page said ‘You can’t ask for anything more with two firsts. We certainly had our mojo back so it was great to have another day of it.

‘Our downwind is pretty good. We have proven that over the last few years so the way the current worked today helped us a little bit - really short upwinds and very long downwinds, so we knew that going into it.

‘We were pretty confident with our speed, especially downwind. We thought that if we were in the top group at the top mark we would be fine and we certainly were on the downwind today.

‘In the first race we arrived at the top mark in fourth and we were third at the next top mark after the reach and got the lead on that first downwind. The next race we were second at the top mark and second at the outer top mark and then got the lead as well.'

The World Champions were asked if they prefer the outside ocean courses in terms of big seaway and greater skill level required.

Page responded 'Yes. We pride ourselves on our ability, our great team work and our training that we have done in those conditions, so yes it would be great for us to be racing in the stronger conditions, but saying that we do like varied conditions as well. Swapping from course to course has been fun too. That Nothe course is a bit like having a westerly at home with the land breeze.

‘More difficult the conditions the better it is for us, it tends to sort the fleet out.

‘There is a lot more racing to go in this regatta and we’ve been there before with difficulty in the second part of the event. But we’ve had a great season, winning every event.

‘So we feel very comfortable in the yellow jerseys and we are sailing well. It is no real surprise that we are at the front.’