Australian Laser Champions - Burton, Wearn, Weir, Walkemeyer, Bennett

by Laura Baldwin on 5 Jan 2011 The champions were crowned at the Australian Laser Championship after a spectacular, nail biting finally on Botany Bay.

The final two races in the Laser Standard fleet were gripping for the spectators, coaches and jury on the water as match races took place between the leaders, Tom Burton and Christoph Bottoni and Australian Sailing Development Squad team mates, Ashley Brunning and Ryan Palk who were fighting for funding results.

Shaking his head with disbelief at the events of the day, Ashley Brunning confessed, 'It didn’t even occur to me to match race Palk today, I was aiming to beat Rutger and Geritzer so I was taken aback when Ryan came at me from the start of the first race'

Palk and Brunning match raced way below the fleet that was lined up on the start. 'I won both pre-starts and got a third in the first race so that was ok but the last race I was in a good position, I think fifth up the first work but I dropped my mainsheet and capsized and that enabled Palk to catch up to me and from there on he covered me the whole race so I couldn’t get free and finished deep. I think he’s beaten me for second place Australian now, it’s so annoying! I’m gonna go lodge some protests!'

'He was on to me from the get go!' Christoph Bottoni from Switzerland exclaimed full of frustration as he filed a protest against Tom Burton. 'I’m protesting under Rule 2, ‘fair sailing’. It is very disappointing that this has happened. He prevented me from starting, he tacked on me many times so I could not get clear, he was even bearing away, not hiking, waiting for me to catch up to cover closer. For me, this is not fair sailing!'

Bottoni’s protest against Burton was dismissed as were all six protests between Brunning and Palk. As it turned out, Brunning had done enough on the water to beat Palk and Tom Burton was crowned 2011 Australian Laser Champion.

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Benjamin Walkemeyer won the last two races in Laser 4.7 to make a total of eight race wins giving him the lowest net points in any of the fleets. Dylan Gore from Tasmania’s performance was exceptional when considering the hurdles he had to push through. His coach, Richard Scarr explained, 'He got stung on the hand by a bee after racing on day one and his hand swelled like a balloon. He struggled to hold the mainsheet on day two and scored one of his discards. Then on day three he came down with tonsillitis. Poor kid was really crook so we rigged his boat for him in the mornings and sent him out to race the best he could then he was straight back to bed after. We knew he had to score better than a ninth in one of the last two races to secure silver so when he finished sixth he was relieved to be able skip the final race'

Milly Bennett, the winner of the Girls Laser 4.7 title was still buzzing as she spoke, 'I’m so happy and relieved it’s over, it’s ridiculous! The nerves kicked in at the start of the first race, I was very nervous and had my worst results today and it was really tight on points at the end! I’m so excited I won!!'

The girls were very competitive against the boys with three finishing in the top ten. Bennett finished fourth overall with Madison Kennedy just two points behind in fifth and Sophie Chesterman in sixth.

Matthew Wearn from Western Australian won the Open Laser Radial Championship title by just three points from Krystal Weir who won the Women’s Laser Radial Championship. Queensland’s Mitchell Kennedy held onto bronze by one point from Great Britain’s Elliot Hanson.

The leaders of the OAMPS Australian Youth Team trials to compete in the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship after the first of the two selection events are; Matthew Wearn in the Laser Radial Boy’s event and Alex South in the Laser Radial Girl’s event. Ashley Stoddart finished just one place behind South so the points couldn’t be closer going in to the OAMPS Australian Youth Championship this week.

Masters sailor, David Wyllie commented, 'This event has been a real pleasure to compete in. Great training for the Laser Masters Championship at Port Stephens in February and several Masters have commented saying the same thing; that the kids are so pleasant to race against, courteous and race by the rules.'

Open Laser Standard Winners
1 – Tom Burton (NSW) 22pts
2 – Christoph Bottoni (SUI) 25pts
3 - Andreas Geritzer (AUT) 28pts

Australian Laser Standard Winners
1 – Tom Burton (NSW) 22pts
2 – Ashley Brunning (NSW) 47pts
3 – Ryan Palk (QLD) 57pts

Laser Standard U21 Winner: 10th Mark Whittington (WA) 88pts

Open Laser Radial Winners
1. Matthew Wearn (WA) 20pts
2. Krystal Weir (VIC) 23pts
3. Mitchell Kennedy (QLD) 30pts

Women’s Laser Radial Winners
1. Krystal Weir (VIC) 23pts
2. Alex South (NSW) 74pts
3. Ashley Stoddart (QLD) 90pts

Laser Radial U17 Winner: Matthew Wearn (NSW)
Laser Radial U19 Winner: Mitchell Kennedy (QLD)

Laser 4.7 Winners
1. Benjamin Walkemeyer (WA) 10pts
2. Dylan Gore (TAS) 26pts
3. Nicholas Connor (NSW) 35pts

Girls Laser 4.7 Winners
1. Milly Bennett (NSW) 54pts
2. Madison Kennedy (QLD) 56pts
3. Sophie Chesterman (TAS) 61pts

Laser 4.7 U16 Winner: Nicholas Connor (NSW)

Regatta Website http://www.laser.asn.au/1011nats/opennats.html