ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year - Slingsby finally honoured

by Craig Heydon on 15 Dec 2010 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year, Tom Slingsby, has finally received his trophy, Rolex watch and the accolades of his peers after he was prevented from attending the official ceremony in Athens last month.

A severe electrical storm grounded Slingsby’s flight to Greece. Instead, the champion sailor made an overseas telephone call on November 9 to ‘discuss Laser sailing’ and that call turned into a live announcement from HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark at the gala function.

Yesterday at Rolex Australia’s Melbourne office, Kerry Kaplan presented Slingsby with the silverware, which was sent from Greece, and a Rolex Yacht-Master, and last night his win was acknowledged at the Sail Melbourne Official World Cup Dinner in front of more than 270 people.

'Winning this award is a great honour, the sailing greats have been nominated for and won this award before, I don’t feel like I’m up there with those guys and was thrilled just to be nominated in the first place,' said Slingsby.

'With the announcement being made over a month ago it was great to finally receive the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year trophy and the amazing Rolex,' he said.

This year has been a stellar one for Slingsby. He won two World Championships in two weeks and returned to the top of the world rankings in the Laser class. He won the Laser class at Sail Sydney last week and this week is in Melbourne contesting Sail Melbourne, the opening round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. Twenty-six year old Slingsby was the first Australian to win the prestigious award since the awards were founded in 1994.

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