Wilmot and Page heading for Olympics

by Malcolm Page on 12 Mar 2004 It has been a long time since I last gave you an update on our movements. I last spoke to you as we were returning from Japan where we competed in the Japanese Olympic Week.

Just to keep the frequent flyers going, we did return to Japan three weeks later for their 470 National titles. This regatta was held in a little town about one hour from Osaka called 'Tsu City'.

As the height of winter was starting to get very close in Japan, winter clothes were a must. We ended having some strong land breezes directly from the snow topped mountains. This kept the temperature in the low teens. On one of the days, a local even helped us along by giving us a shot of Sake. The regatta went very smoothly, with us taking the title.

We returned to Australia with only one day to spare before we had to jump in the car and head to Brisbane. This was the first of the Downunder regatta series in Australia.

This series consisted of five 470 regattas on the east coast of Australia. Race practise and pressure have always been a high focus for us, so just to make sure we were getting our quota, we slipped another further two regattas in with the smaller 420 class in early January.

We have been undefeated in the 470 Australian Downunder series for the last three years, but this summer we lost that title. In the second of the regattas being held in Sydney, from our home yacht club (Middle Harbour YC), we slipped up against the current world champions from Italy and took 2nd place to them.

This certainly motivated us for the following few important regattas. Four days later, we competed in the Sydney International Regatta where we held a perfect score (all first places) for the previous two years.

With 12 nations and 32 boats, it would be difficult to complete such a feat, but with some great racing, we managed to keep this record in place and took this title again with a perfect score.

Australia hosted the International 420 World Championship (junior boat of the 470) at Sail Melbourne from Mornington Peninsula on Port Phillip Bay in January. We took this opportunity to sail in another top level regatta with added pressure.

To make the Australian team, we competed in the Australian Championship the week before the World Championship. This gave us some much needed 420 practise for the following week.

We found the 420 very very difficult to race as we were way too heavy for the boats. We were 30 kilos over the preferred weight. This made us have a real speed disadvantage in the marginal planing conditions.

With some consistent and intensive sailing, we managed to take the World title with two races to spare. Just to make sure we did not have some arithmetic problems, we completed one more race to ensure everything was alright.

The best thing from this regatta was that Australia took the podium. Our extended 470 team, who were also competing in this regatta, took the 2nd and 3rd places as well. Go the Aussies!!!

The following day was the start of our final Olympic Trial in the 470 at Sail Melbourne hosted by Sandringham Yacht Club. With no rest, we hit the water the next day and competed in a very strong Melbourne sea breeze.

Although we had a solid lead in our Olympic Trials, we did not take anything for granted and focussed on good results. Again, with some intensive consistent sailing, we managed to secure 1st place and with that, our position in the Australian Olympic Team with one race to spare.

Within two weeks, both Nathan and I had managed to achieve two of our life long dreams; winning a World Championship and representing Australia at the Olympic Games.

With two days rest we were into another regatta. This one was the Australian Championships. We totally disregarded the new rule of 'only an Australian is eligible to win the Australian title' and went into this regatta with the idea of winning it outright.

This ended up being Nathan's fifth Australian title and my third, so we managed to end the summer of racing on a high, beating many of the top international sailors.

This summer series allowed us to maintain the world No. 1 ranking again. We have now held onto this position for 18 of the last 20 months.

At the end of January, we loaded our boats into a container for Europe. This is due to arrive in two weeks time. That means that we will be leaving the beautiful Sydney weather in two weeks and heading to the cold Spring weather of Europe. Our schedule will have us in Europe for five continuous months and we will not return until after the Olympic Games in late August.

In one final 'bang' before we go to Europe, we will be having a fundraising night on the 19th of March at Middle Harbour Yacht Club.

The main highlight of the night is world famous person and sailor, John Bertrand, who will be presenting. This will start at 6pm and finish at 8pm. Please reply to Middle Harbour Yacht Club if you would like to attend and give us your final support before we head towards our ultimate goal. Be part of our Olympic Dream!

Thanks again for all your support.

'Thanks to our supporters'
North Sails Japan www.northsails.com/jp/ Driveaway Holidays www.driveaway.com.au Ronstan Australia www.ronstan.com Ziegelmayer Boats, Middle Harbour Yacht Club, Learsport www.learsport.com.au Kaenon Eyewear www.kaenon.com Manooga Products www.manooga.com David Fuller, Fibre glass International, Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS)

and to the Australian Yachting Federation and their Supporters:

P&O Nedlloyd and Schenker International