Another Silver at ISAF Sailing World Cup - Weymouth, UK

by Mat Belcher and Will Ryan on 20 Jun 2015 It has been a long week, but we are happy to once again secure another Silver Medal in the latest round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup which was held on the Olympic waters of Weymouth, United Kingdom (June 10-14th). This was the first time Mat Belcher and Coach Victor Kovalenko had returned to this special spot since securing the Olympic Gold Medal for Australia in the Mens 470 Class on August 10th 2012. This also marked quite a special 'round-the-world-trip' for the team having just completed a training block on the future Olympic waters of Gunabarra Bay, Brazil in preparation for next year’s 2016 Olympic Games.

The week of racing began in typical South-West England cold fashion, but challenging winds from the land kept teams on their toes in early races with potential for rapid and severe gains and loses. After a solid start on day one taking care to avoid high scores, the team capitalised on more stable conditions on day two to record a second and first place and move into a duel with the team from USA which lasted until the end of the event.

The final medal race provided good value for the spectators at the 2012 Olympic Venue with two attempts before a final result could be confirmed. With a seven point deficit to make-up it was always going to be a big ask - however in the first race attempt after overcoming two jury initiated penalties and getting back into the lead on lap two of the race it looked like anything was possible however the wind began to die forcing this race to be abandoned. Mat commented after racing 'We tried to get the first race through which was pretty light. They made a good decision actually, to cancel it, and do the re-race in a nice South Westerly of about seven - eight knots. Nice conditions, but all in all made for a difficult day of racing.”

In the race re-run the team once again engaged and duelled against the Americans in the pre-start, however after losing control of the Americans early on the first leg the team had to settle for Silver.

Despite this being the third second place after World Cup's in Miami and Hyères, The Team is happy with where we are at. Speaking post racing Will added “We’re ultra-competitive people, so to come away with second is always a bit hard, but it has each time been against different teams at these past three World Cups. We are happy with our performance though and it is still a long road to Rio so we are really happy with where we are in the campaign.”

This event marked the last round of the Sailing World Cup to be held in Europe for 2015. The Series will for the second year in a row culminate in a Super Final to be held in Abu Dhabi, UAE in October 2015.

For the team it is a short break now including packing containers for the August Pre-Olympics in Rio, before continuing preparations in Aarhus, Denmark which will host the 470 European Championships for 2015 from June 29th - July 4th.

Thankyou to all for your continued support, we are working hard to do you proud.