Mat Belcher crowned Rolex World Sailor of the Year
by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World team on 13 Nov 2013
Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan after crossing the 470 Worlds finish line Thom Touw
http://www.thomtouw.com
2012 Olympic Gold Medallist, Four times world champion. Queensland sailor Mat Belcher was last night crowned World Sailor of the Year. Nominated three times in four years Belcher is hot property.
His Golden streak of 17 regatta wins in a row is unparalleled in sailing. Since his second place at Sail Melbourne in 2011, he has not sailed in an Olympic class regatta he did not win.
Mat's next regatta is the ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne and he and his crew Will Ryan will start favourites ahead of the 2009 World Champions Croatia's Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic, who have been on the podium three times since then.
This weekend with the full moon shining large is the Heaven Can Wait 24 Hour Race on Lake Macquarie with the 12 hour race and one Lap Dash. Blake Middleton will be once again be the PRO. This scribe has been involved in the event for the last eight years but is currently in Europe ahead of METS in Amsterdam. But we will be thinking of you. Good luck to Blake, Mel Steiner and everyone at RMYC Toronto- hope the weather is fabulous for you. Can someone please record GOOD MORNING LAKE MACQUARIE for us. The Friday Night Dinner will be special, if you can get there you should!!
An Olympic Class Revolution - A very significant restructure proposal, a revolution even, designed to change the nature of Olympic class sailing competitions at all levels is being presented to the ISAF Council this week in Muscat, Oman.
This proposal, if accepted will have a major impact on the current ISAF Sailing World Cup events and Olympic classes World Championships. EUROSAF President Marco Predieri is a strong supporter of the ISAF proposal as he explained to Sail-World.com
Australia has been dominating the Laser class competition on the world scene over the last few years, with 2010 ISAF Sailor of the Year and 20912 Olympic Gold medallist Tom Slingsby passing the baton to fellow Aussie Tom Burton, ranked number one in the world for more than a year.
But the return of Brazilian sailing legend Robert Scheidt after nine years in the Star class has turned up the heat among the 2016 Olympic Games contenders at the Laser Standard Men’s World Championships 2013 starting in Oman in less than a week.
Having won eight world titles and three Olympic medals in the class, 40 year-old Scheidt is the most successful Laser sailor of all time. With the dropping of the Star class from the Olympic rota, he has now returned to Lasers to qualify for the Olympics on his home waters in Rio de Janeiro and is currently ranked number 71 Laser sailor in the world. Interesting times for Australia's Laser squad.
Lots more news and a big cheer for Mat. Onya Mate
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