Countback finish to first Olympic nomination regatta

by Katie Culbert on 6 Jan 2003 The first Olympic Nomination Regatta for the 2004 Australian Olympic Team has finished with a countback determining the first placed Australian.
Regatta

The regatta was the Australian Laser Championships held at the Largs Bay Sailing Club in South Australia. Queensland’s Brendan Casey (AIS) and Olympic bronze medallist from Sydney, Michael Blackburn (NSWIS) finished the 12 races on equal points, but Casey was awarded 3rd place on a countback. This meant Casey was the first placed Australian and takes a lead in the race for Olympic Nomination.

More importantly Casey gained an important psychological advantage after the days events. In the first race of the day Casey received his second yellow flag of the regatta and withdrew from racing to ensure he was able to compete in the final race of the day. Going into the final race Casey knew he had to beat Blackburn and finish 1st or 2nd in the race to get over the Olympic medallist on the overall results. At the first mark of the final race Casey went with the rest of the fleet, and Blackburn went in the opposite direction hoping to gain an advantage. Unfortunately the risk did not pay off and Blackburn finished well back in the final race, Casey finished 2nd in the race and equal on points overall with Blackburn.

The regatta was won by Finland’s Roope Suomalainen, with Austria’s Andreas Geritzer in 2nd place. In 3rd place was Brendan Casey (AIS), with Michael Blackburn (NSWIS) 4th and Norway’s Peer Moberg 5th. The racing was extremely tight, with the top four places separated by only 3 points.

The Laser sailors now head to Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne where they will contest the Sail Melbourne International Regatta. It is the only ISAF Grade 1 event in Australia and a huge turn out is expected across the fleets. For all other Olympic classes, Sail Melbourne will be the first Olympic Nomination Regatta. The event is not a Nomination Regatta for the Laser class.

Follow all the action from warm-up regattas and the main event (which starts on Saturday 11th January).