Three Australian Golds ISAF World Sailing Games

by Alistair Snell on 22 May 2006 Eight Australian crews featured in the medal races at the 2006 ISAF World Sailing Games on Lake Neusiedl in Austria and five won medals.

Tom Slingsby lead the way for Australia with victory in the Laser fleet. Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby followed with victory in the Hober Tigers and then Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page won gold in the 470s. The three gold medals significantly helped Australia to forge ahead of the other teams and win the Kings Trophy which awarded to the best performing team at the event.

The hugely successful day for Australia was capped off with a silver medal for Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson in the 470's and a bronze medal for Sarah Blanck in the Laser Radials. All the medal winning crews are members of the current Australian Sailing Team and are campaigning for the Beijing Olympic Games.

The other three Australian crews also performed well on the final day of competition with Belinda Zanesco & Bridget Waterhouse finishing fifth in the Hobie 16s, Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin fifth in the 49'ers and Brendan Casey eighth in the Laser.

Head Coach Victor Kovalenko was very happy with the Teams results and said 'we are very proud to make Australia the number one country at this event. All of our Team contributed to this fantastic achievement.'

Most of the Team have disbursed for various other regattas around the world with several of the group now heading to the Netherlands for the ISAF Grade 1 Holland Regatta.