Adrian Finglas appointed as an Olympic coach

by Ian Grant on 2 Jan 2008 Adrian Finglas Queensland’s high performance sailing coach has deservedly won selection for the 2008 Olympic yachting regatta in Beijing.

The exceptionally dedicated Brisbane sailor who has struggled to gain enough income to buy a packet of weet-bix to place on the breakfast table has finally been rewarded with his personal Green and Gold Olympic colours.

His vast experience accumulated from sailing a miniature snub-nose Sabot on Brisbane’s Cabbage Tree Creek to winning the World Tasar title with Adam Beashel in Yeppoon and coaching the young Queensland crew of Lisa Charlson and Sarah Roberts-Thomson to the World 420 Gold Medal in South Africa is highly regarded on the International sailing circuit.

He has crewed with the best in the World and has the gifted skill of assisting club sailors to become the best in their class.

Finglas also has the career distinction of crewing with the Syd Fischer Young Australia Americas Cup challenge and has always remained focused on improving his personal knowledge over a wide range of classes at the World championship level.

His selection to coach the Australian Yngling crew of Nicky Bethwaite, Karyn Gojnick and Angela Farrell for the 2008 Olympiad has not come out of the left field.

He has done the hard yards over a number of years and this is a deserved reward for him and the financial support and encouragement provided by his equally dedicated parents.

Besides proving his qualifications as Queensland’s most successful sailing coach Finglas has been to the Olympics before as a guest with the American team in Barcelona.

However he regards his selection for Beijing as a special milestone in a career that has seen him experience living in a clapped out van while he represented Australia at major 470 dinghy championships in Europe to assisting and sailing with the mega rich in World one-design championships.
Experiencing the hardship associated with climbing his ‘Everest’ has proved that Finglas is well prepared for his most important mission as the Australian Olympic Yngling Coach.

Meanwhile Finglas will test his personal tactical strategy when a high class fleet line up to contest the Audi Australian Etchells championship over the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron courses on Moreton Bay this month.
Adrian Finglas since teaming up with Jason Muir in Racer XY has won the Australian Mid-winter Bronze medal at Mooloolaba in June and continued to express a claim as a National title medallist when they won Silver Medal at the Audi Queensland title regatta in early December.

Muir like Finglas is a former Australian Sabot champion and has the skill capable of ‘weathering the storm’ against a number of Australia’s most successful skippers including Americas Cup winner John Bertrand and his Australia II crew mates Skip Lissiman of Perth and Rob Brown from Sydney.

The Racer XY crew showed they were on the pace when they outclassed Bertrand, Lissiman and Brown at Mooloolaba to be the provisional champions on the water only to be relegated to the Bronze Medal in the Protest Room.

However while the decision was difficult to accept the Racer XY crew hope to add another important result to celebrate the personal achievements of their mate and 2008 Australian Olympic Yngling coach Adrian Finglas.