Australian sailors prepare for World Cup competition in Germany

by Craig Heydon on 17 Jun 2010 Australian Sailing Team athletes are making their way to Germany for the penultimate round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup with racing beginning in Kiel on Saturday.

Following their recent success at round five of the Sailing World Cup in Holland which yielded two Golds and a Silver medal the Australian sailors are keen to continue their good form.

The Australian Women’s Match Racing Team will be looking to repeat their success of the 2009 regatta where Katie Spithill beat Nicky Souter to the Gold medal in an all-Australian final.

'We’ve just finished a week long training camp in Weymouth and have a five day break before Kiel,' said Souter. 'We shipped our boats over from Australia so we got in some solid training sessions and will return to training next month before the final round of the World Cup in August.'

'Our preparations have gone quite well, with our squad now consisting of six members we’ve stuck with the same team since Holland and have started to gel together,' she said. 'Usually when we head off to a World Cup event we might have only sailed with our combinations a few times before and now after sailing together for a month we feel as though we are a lot more prepared.'

Souter will sail alongside Nina Curtis and Olivia Price while Katie Spithill will skipper the second Australian Women’s Match Racing Team entry with Jessica Eastwell and Angela Farrell as crew.

'At the World Cup events it’s all about consistency,' said Souter. 'You want to consistently make the semi-finals and that is always our goal for the World Cup events. With the event format so cut throat in the first round robin those first few races are very important.'

The Australian Sailing Team crew of Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page head to Germany with an extended lead in the 470 men’s World Cup standings following their Silver medal in Holland last month.

The German leg of the World Cup marks the beginning of an extended stay in Europe for the pair with the 2010 470 World Championship being held in Holland in July followed by the final round of the World Cup in England in August.

'Following Holland we went our own ways and headed back home to Australia for just over a week for some time off to refresh before this trip,' said Page. 'The aim for this regatta is to prepare well for the World Championship, hone in our racing skills and use it for some equipment selection.'

'Our preparations for the Worlds have gone quite well, we’ve had quite a bit of international competition so far this year and we believe we’ll be in the mix,' he said. 'At the end of each regatta we still have a long list of what we want to work on but we feel we’re getting there.'

Competing alongside Belcher and Page in the 470 class will be Australian Sailing Development Squad members Sam Kivell and Will Ryan, Alexander and Patrick Conway and Max Taylor and Ben Gunther.

In the Laser class Tom Slingsby heads to Germany with two strong results behind him kicking off his 2010 European campaign after victory at the World Cup in Holland and a bronze medal at the 2010 European Championship in Estonia.

Joining Slingsby in the Laser fleet will be Ryan Palk who had a top 10 finish at the European Championship in just his second major international regatta, Ashley Brunning and James Burman.

Jessica Crisp will compete in the RS:X women’s class in Germany following her fifth place finish at round five of the World Cup in Holland.

Krystal Weir continues her return to the Laser Radial class in Germany, after a fifth place in Holland and will be joined in the class by fellow Australian Megan de Lange while West Australian Steven Thomas will compete in a strong 49er class.

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