ISAF Sailing World Championships - Strong day for Belcher and Page

by Craig Heydon on 10 Dec 2011 Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships continued on day eight with Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page a step closer to defending their 470 World Championship title after another strong day in Fremantle, Australia.

Belcher and Page went into the final two Gold fleet races with a 12 point lead over Great Britain’s Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell, with Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic a further 13 back in third.

The Australians kept a close watch on their closest competitors throughout Saturday’s two races, with a sixth and a fifth allowing them to open up a 17 point gap over the British and Croatian crews who are tied on points heading into the final medal race.

'The results in the end were alright today, we didn’t feel like we were probably sailing our best today but to come away with a sixth and a fifth was good in the sense that we gained points on second place and third came back into the equation a bit,' said Page. 'It’s good to have a good lead going into the medal race tomorrow.'

With just 10 spots available in Sunday’s medal race racing was tight throughout the fleet in both races.

'For a lot of countries qualification is at stake and a lot of individual teams are trying to qualify for next year so everyone upped the risk quite a bit today,' said Belcher. 'In the position we were in we didn’t want to take too many risks and found ourselves a little back on the first beat but pulled through, we felt that we could have sailed a little better but we can’t complain to come away with those results.'

The current world number ones will still have to be at the top of their game on Sunday with anything possible in the double point medal race.

'We’re in a very strong position and obviously with the British and Croatians on equal points they’re going to be looking at each other a little bit more than us, but it’s not done until the fat lady sings so we’ll be out there and pushing it tomorrow.'

Belcher had similar thoughts as they work towards their second straight title together, this one just eight months out from the London 2012 Olympic Games.

'We’re in a comfortable position, are sailing well and are in good form,' said Belcher. 'We’ve been in this position before and can bring confidence from that and go out tomorrow racing hard and hopefully it goes our way.'

Fellow Australian 470 sailors Sam Kivell and Will Ryan finished the week 32nd overall after a pair of 31st place finishes in the final two fleet races.

Australia’s two Women’s Match Racing crews kicked off the repechage round robin, with both teams fighting for a top four finish and progression to the quarter-finals.

Nicky Souter, Jessica Eastwell and Katie Spithill ended the day with three wins and one loss. Souter and crew began the day with a win against New Zealand, Portugal and Denmark before a loss against Brazil.

Fellow Australians Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty sit on two wins and two losses, recording victories against Brazil and New Zealand and losses against Denmark and Portugal.

Racing continues for both crew on Sunday, including an all-Australian race on Fremantle Harbour sometime during the day.

In the RS:X women’s Jessica Crisp ended her regatta in 17th overall, rounding out the World Championships with two 17th place finishes.

Krystal Weir ended the Laser Radial competition on a high with her best result of the week, a second in the final race. Weir had a 29th earlier in the day on the Bathers Bay course and finished 19th overall.

'Finally I found some form in that final race,' said Weir. 'It’s just a bit of a shame that it wasn’t like this earlier in the week. I got off the start line well, got ahead and it was easy after that, when you’re back in the fleet it’s like sailing in a washing machine.'

Alex South finished up 33rd, ahead of Gabrielle King in 42nd, Ashley Stoddart in 49th and Caitlin Elks in 76th.

In the Finn fleet Brendan Casey was 19th overall, after being excluded for jumping the start in race one and finishing 25th in race two.

Full results are available on the event website.


Australian Sailing Team website