Belcher and Ryan off to a nice start

by Mat Belcher and Will Ryan on 13 Dec 2012 Aussies Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan bring us up to date on their first regatta on their road to Rio 2016 and how the duo are keen to start off strongly.

Hi Everyone,

Well, Sail Melbourne is finished and with it the first regatta for Will and I on our way to Rio 2016. We were keen to start things off strongly, to give us confidence and to set a base from which to develop from. But with only a few training sessions under our belt to date we certainly did not expect to always be out at the front. Thus we were really pleased when we put together a strong performance in Melbourne and managed 10 wins from 10 races. To our knowledge, this is the first time any team has won that many races at a world cup event, winning all races and securing the overall win before the medal race. This is a great feeling and an even bigger motivator to keep building on this in the future.

Since the end of Sail Melbourne we only had a short break, Will driving up to Sydney and myself finishing off a few university exams. And from there it is straight back into racing for us. Sail Sydney, our last event for 2012 starts tomorrow. The weather for the week ahead looks great and we look forward to some close racing on Sydney harbour. Our goals for these first Australian events were to get started our campaign and build relationships before actively training in mid January for the European summer. It is also nice for us to race on Australian waters and support the local fleets on the back of sailing's success from London 2012.

The event will run for four days (13-16 Dec) from Woollahra Sailing Club, so if you are around come and say hi.

You can follow our progress on our Facebook Page or via our new team website Belcher Ryan 2016.

All the best.