Aussies pass the test on day two of ILCA 7 World Championships
by Michael Martin 27 Jan 04:32 PST
24-31 January 2024
Matt Wearn on day 2 of the 2024 ILCA 7 Men World Championship © Jack Fletcher / Down Under Sail
Australia has two sailors in the top four at the 2024 ILCA 7 World Championships, with reigning World Champion Matt Wearn moving up to second and Luke Elliott holding on to fourth after day two.
It was a long day for the athletes, with all three fleets heading out on time only to be sent back ashore due to inconsistent winds. When they did get back on the racecourse later in the afternoon the wind had built, and the race committee got the two scheduled races in just before the sun went down.
"It was a really long day, we had a couple of goes at getting a race started at the first attempt," said Wearn.
"So it was a late start, and it was tricky and shifty when we did get out there. I came away with two seconds in the end which are two really good scores, and hopefully I can build on those again tomorrow."
With less than six months to go until the Olympics, the Tokyo 2020 champion will be looking to make another statement at this home World Championships.
All five Australian Sailing Team and Australian Sailing Squad sailors were in the same fleet today, and it was young Western Australian Ethan McAullay who carried over his fine form from yesterday to win the first race of the day.
"I got a good start at the boat and managed to tack on the biggest lefty of the day off the start and connect it with the biggest righty to go all the way," noted McAullay.
It looked like his luck had run out when he found himself buried in the field early in the second race, but he showed poise to compose himself and move through the fleet to find a top ten finish.
"I struggled on the first upwind and probably rounded twentieth. I had a good downwind with strong strategy on the second upwind and caught up to finish eighth. I knew my compass angles on the second upwind which helped me find which way I needed to be going."
Australian Sailing Team ILCA 7 Coach Rafa Trujillo was pleased with the results of the squad in the testing conditions, with four of the squad athletes in the top fifteen.
"It was quite a challenging day," said Trujillo. "I am pretty happy with all of the squad finishing in the top 12 in the last race.
"We had a lot of shifts and pressure differences on the racecourse, with a lot of minefields."
He noted that McAullay wasn't the only one to mount a comeback in today's racing.
"Wearny found a little bit of traffic in the first upwind of the first race and rounded the top mark in twentieth. He made an amazing comeback on the downwind and finished the race in second. All the boys were all gaining on the first downwind, but after that Wearny was the only one to continue climbing."
Trujillo summed up the day when he noted; "The only thing consistent today on the water was the performance of Matt Wearn with two second places."
Norwegian Hermann Tomasgaard continues to lead the regatta, posting another race win and a fifth today to go with his two wins from yesterday.
"We're expecting a bit lighter breeze tomorrow," concluded Wearn.
"That will change things up a little bit, but I'm looking forward to that as it's nice to get a range of conditions during a regatta. Hopefully it's sailable and we can go out and get some racing in."
Racing is set to resume at 1pm ACDT tomorrow.
Visit the event website for more details or see full results here.
Australian Sailing Team (AST), Australian Sailing Squad (ASS) and Australian Sailing Futures (ASF) results at the 2024 ILCA 7 World Championships:
1st - Hermann Tomasgaard (NOR) - 1, 1, 1, (5) (3 points)
2nd - Matt Wearn (AST/WA) - (6), 1, 2, 1 (4 pts)
3rd - Filip Jurišic (CRO) - 2, 3, (4), 1 (6 pts)
4th - Luke Elliott (ASS/WA) - 1, 2, 5, (9) (8 pts)
10th - Ethan McAullay (ASS/WA) - 5, (9), 1, 7 (13 pts)
15th - Zac Littlewood (ASS/WA) - 12, 5, (16), 3 (20 pts)
30th - Finn Alexander (ASS/NSW) - 9, 7, (11), 11 (27 pts)
50th - Stefan Elliott-Shircore (ASF/WA) - 16, 18, (20), 8 (42 pts)
59th - Michael Compton (ASF/WA) - 15, (32), 23, 15 (53 pts)
83rd - Sam King (ASF/TAS) - 20, (29), 27, 25 (72 pts)
101st - Lawson McAullay (ASF/WA) - 20, 31.3 RDGr, 35, (39) (86.3 pts)
126th - Will Sargent (ASF/TAS) - (47), 43, 35, 39 (117 pts)