Three World Championships in a row for Belcher and Page

by Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page on 22 May 2012 Australian sailors Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page on their 2012 470 World Championship victory – their third world title in a row.

Mathew and I have huge smiles on our faces at the moment! We have just won the 2012 World Championship in Barcelona.

This made it three World Championships in a row. This is the first time it has happened in Olympic 470 Men's Class (a 470 Women team have gone four Worlds in a row and another two have also got the hat trick - so we are clearly behind the women).

This victory was our third regatta win in a row for Europe 2012. So it's hat tricks all round.

We started this regatta in amazing form with six first places from six races, and ended up winning eight of the 12 standard races. We had such a points difference that we had secured the Gold Medal before the final medal race (top 10 only). Although, we did need to start and finish the Medal Race race to ensure the top podium position. We might of shown dominance on the score card but, no single race was ever easy. We had on many occasions found ourselves in a tight position, back in the fleet. We had to fight hard to survive.

Despite this, we are obviously very happy with our performance, and have shown great results consistently across many regattas. To be able to do this in an Olympic year has given us great confidence.

To get to where we are currently takes a huge amount of effort. In particular the endless support from our Federation, Institute of Sports, fellow Australian Sailing Team members, AST Patrons, training partners, personal Sponsors/ Supporters, friends and families, is always appreciated. But we wanted to make note of a very special person who might not be in our boat, but he is always with us every day we are training, racing or working on our boat.

This is our coach Victor. He is the mastermind of our campaign and development as a team. In addition, he is a great friend and mentor. This was Victor's 15th World Title win in the 470 class. A feat that I'm sure will never be reach by any other coach in this class. Any wonder his middle name is 'medal maker'.

We will now reintroduce ourselves with our families, and will move from mainland Europe to Weymouth, UK. Most of our time will now be in the UK in the preparation for the London games.

We will report again from ol' blighty.
Belcher Page 2012 website