ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship - Aussies ready

by Craig Heydon on 26 Jun 2012 Australian sailors Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty will face their final test before the London 2012 Olympic Games this week.

The trio will compete in the 2012 ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Racing begins on Tuesday with the Australians taking on the world’s best 15 Women’s Match Racing crews in their last opportunity to line up against their Olympic opponents ahead of next month’s Games.

Price, Curtis and Whitty head into the event off the back of a number of strong performances so far this year, culminating in their gold medal at the recent ISAF Sailing World Cup round in Weymouth, England.

The Australian trio has made three trips to the podium from four ISAF Sailing World Cup rounds this year, with their gold in Weymouth coming after winning silver in Miami in January and bronze in Spain in April.

'We've had a good few training blocks before these World Championships which is going to be a good platform to start racing again on Tuesday,' said Price. 'We're feeling strong as a team after all of our training over here and after the result at the Sail for Gold regatta a few weeks back.

'This is the final regatta before the Olympics so we’re just going to approach it as another practice for the Games,' she said. 'We're happy with our results in the World Cup this year so we aren't going to change much for this regatta.

'All three of us are excited to go racing again after these last training blocks,' said Price.

Price and crew head into the 2012 ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship ranked number six in the world, their highest position since teaming up in the middle of 2011.

They finished eighth at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championship and will be out to continue their strong 2012 form in Sweden. Earlier this month Price, Curtis and Whitty were named to represent Australia at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Racing begins on Tuesday 26 June with the 16 teams split into two groups. The top four from each group will advance to the gold group where they will race for one of the top four spots to progress to the semi-final and then final.

Results during the regatta will be found here

Australian Sailing Team website