Murray and Palfrey qualify Australia for Olympics

by Andrew 'Dog: Palfrey on 11 Jul 2007 Australians Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey placed ninth in the Star Worlds, which were completed last night, here in Cascais, Portugal. Andrew ‘Dog' Palfrey reports.

Very significant result for us. It means that we have qualified Australia for a place in the Star class at the 08 Olympics in China. Further to that, as there are no other Aussie star teams with 'benchmark' results, meeting the criteria for Olympic team nomination, we are now very close to securing the Olympic team spot for our country.

From here the process (as I understand it), is that there is one more regatta for an Australian Star team to meet the Australian nomination criteria. That is the European Championship on Lake Garda in Italy during September.

If no Australian finishes in the top five there, then we will probably be nominated by Yachting Australia to the AOC to represent in China. IF another team finishes top five in Garda, then Yachting Australia has a choice to make, between us and the other team. So, in summary, we are looking good for China.

Qualifying the country here was huge for us. It is ultra-competitive. There are many more good countries in the Star class, than are allowed to compete in the games (only 15 nations, plus the host China). Eleven spots were allocated here. Four more spots at next years worlds in Miami.

I would estimate there will be up to 12 very competitive nations vying for four spots in Miami next April. It is fantastic to be out of that mess and being able to focus on preparing to perform our absolute best in China in 13 months time.

The winners of the Star worlds here were Brazil’s Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada. These guys were awesome. Fast! Aggressive. Smart etc

Robert has won seven Laser class worlds and won the Laser class gold medal in Athens. He has been in the Star for two and a half years. They were sixth in 05 and third last year. The reigning gold medallist from Athens in the Star class. Torben Grael is also from Brazil. Torben was about 14th here. The Brazilian trials for China will be interesting.

Second here were Xavier and Pascal from France. They have won the worlds twice (03 and 05). Third was Iain Percy from GBR, who won the worlds in 02 and was the gold medallist in Sydney from the Finn class. Percy has a new crew now, Andrew (Bart) Simpson.

The reigning world champions from New Zealand, Hamish and Tiny were fourth. The number one ranked team, Mateusz and Dominic (Poland) were fifth. Mateusz won the Finn Gold in 96 and bronze in 04. Good golfing partner as well. Sixth were Diego and Giovani from Italy. All top ten results from them. Seventh were the world champions from 01 and 04, Freddy Loof and Anders (Coat) Eckstrom from Sweden. Eighth were our good friends from Germany, Marc Pickel and Ingo Borkowski. We were ninth. The locals, Alfonso and Bernado were tenth. Good to see them also qualify, after missing out narrowly for Athens. Another Italian was 11th, so the 11th nation spot went to the USA, with Mark Reynolds and Hal in 12th overall.

Those who know the star class will find it hard to believe that no Americans were in the top ten. Some of their better prospects have been tied up in the America’s cup, so expect them to improve.

The US trials are in October. Mark Reynolds has done everything there is to do in the Star class. He has two golds and a silver and has won the worlds twice (at least), as well as Seven Bacardi cups. He is a legend. He seems more interested in Golf than sailing these days, but I reckon there are a bunch of hot young American star teams that were glad that the old master was here this week.

The Irish team or Prof and Ben were 12th nation, so the first nation that missed. Bad Luck. They put in a great week, but had two results in the 20’s on the last day. Our Bermudan training partners, Peter Bromby and Bill McNiven had a disappointing result. They finished around 20th.

They were fast, but did not put it together this week. They’ll be fine to qualify next year, as Big Bird is the king of Biscayne Bay in Miami.

So, as we look forward to China next year, it is worth looking back. There has been a lot of effort for a long time to reach this point. Also, a huge amount of support from home.

Iain needs little introduction. He made his mark in the sport with outstanding success in the skiffs through the 70’s and 80’s and was then running America’s Cup syndicates in his late twenties and early thirties, including designing and skippering the yachts. He started sailing in the Star class in 95. During all that time, he has been very successful in the business world.

I started to campaign for the Olympics in 97 in the Soling class. Since then, I have geared my life around one day hoping to represent Australia in the games. This includes moving the family from Melbourne to Sydney. Ten years…

We teamed up in August 01.In the 02 worlds, we were 35th. In 03, we were 14th (where we qualified AUS for a spot in Athens, which the experienced Beasho and Gilesy took – they deserved it - they killed us in the trials). In 04 were about 18th in a very hot Olympic fleet. In 05 we were 10th. Last year we were 16th (which we were not happy with). We have trained at home probably 150 times. We have done approx 35 overseas events together. Anyway, that’s our story.

Both Iain and I were late starters in terms of Olympic campaigning. Iain was 37 in 1995. I was 30 in 97. In China, Iain will be 50. I will be 41. What a great sport!

Iain is on his way home. I leave tomorrow. Only two weeks at home with Kate and Kids. Off to China at the end of the month for three and a half weeks. This is for an Aus team training camp and the Pre-Olympic regatta. Then home for a few days before heading to Italy for the Europeans. Back in late September.

Need to mention our coach, Euan McNichol. This week has been quite stressful, as the stakes were high and the conditions were anything but easy. Euan has been a rock of support and a technical whiz, as well as helping to relieve the pressure with his brand of caustic humour.

Thanks mate. Finally, with the combined Olympic class worlds, we have had great support from Yachting Australia, who has had a small but hard-working team here to support all of the sailors in many ways. Thanks Jonesy, Brownie, Katie, Eric and Rosie.

Atbove are two photos. Both kindly forwarded to me by my mate from Poland, Tytus. One is a mark rounding. The other is from last night, where they sent us out for the Medal Race (top ten) at 7:30pm after waiting all day for the 35 knot winds to ease.

There was a brief lull in the wind, so out we went. As soon as we got out there, the wind increased again to 30-35 knots. The race was abandoned. We finished fifth in the race back to the crane. Also performed a magic trick – we went out with a new jib and came back with an old one…. No wonder Reynolds (the sail maker) was smiling.