International Moth Worlds at Black Rock Sailing and Waterski Club overall
by Di Pearson 8 Jan 2005 09:34 GMT
Rohan Veal leads the International Moth worlds in Melbourne © Sport the Library
Rohan Veal in extraordinary win of Moth Worlds
Rohan Veal (AUS) won every race of the eight-race Moth World Championship to win the title on Port Phillip Bay at Sail Melbourne this afternoon.
In an extraordinary display in a 47-strong fleet, with strong competition from fellow Australian competitors and others from Great Britain, Singapore, Japan, Germany and Switzerland, Veal, the current Open European champion, put his foil on and did not look back .
Waiting ashore to congratulate him were Veal’s proud parents, sister and fiancée Virginia.
‘I’ve put in a lot of effort and I planned. I had plans in place for the last Worlds in France, but they did not come off. This time was different. I practiced a lot and I was more in control,’ the 27 year old who turns 28 next week said on coming ashore this afternoon.
‘I can’t quite believe it – I’m exhausted – it’s been a long day out there,’ Veal said of their back-to-back four race finish today, in which oscillating winds started out in the 1ight 10 knot region and built to 18 knots by the middle of Race 3 this afternoon.
What makes Veal’s dominance of these Worlds more incredible is that he ‘foiled’ for the whole series – whether it was light or heavy airs – although conditions were mostly windier.
‘That was a goal,’ Veal said, ‘I wanted to foil in every race; I wanted to win that way, not by changing between foil and conventional.’
Earlier in the month, Veal won every race but one in the Australian Championship – that one race cost him the series, relegating him to second overall in favour of the new champ and conventional Moth sailor, Les Thorpe (AUS). Thorpe finished the Worlds in a credible fifth place – the best of the conventional set.
Second and third places overall have gone to the two top Brits – Simone Payne finished second, seven points behind Veal, taking into account one race drop. Adam May finished third, five points behind his countryman.
‘Simon was my biggest threat, he pushed me and I just had to hold him off. Adam too. We had good numbers at this event, more than there have been in the past, so that feels great too,’ Veal commented.
The top three were well named – Veal on Outlaw, Payne with Shoulder Angel and May’s boat Mistress – it all fits.
Payne finished second to Veal at the 2004 Open European Championship, winning the European title, whilst May was the British Tornado crew for Hugh Styles at the Sydney 2000 Games. Both looked a serious threat at the beginning of the Championship, but as Veal, from the Melbourne suburb of Seaford, continued to win every race, it became fairly obvious that the Victorian was the outstanding sailor.
His win brought back memories of another Black Rock sailor (now an Olympic coach), Arthur Brett, who won the World Contender crown against a then three-time former World Champ and seemingly unbeatable Italian, Andrea Bonezzi at the same venue in 2002.
Fourth place overall at Moth Worlds went to expatriate Australian, Mark Robinson, now sailing for Singapore. Robinson is now an Olympic coach with the Singapore team and showed good speed, but obviously not the time on his hands to put in the necessary practice.
The top four finishers are all foilers, Thorpe the best placed of the conventional sailors. Other names in the fleet included defending World champion, Chris Dey (AUS), who finished eighth, and designer and tester of the Moth foil system respectively, John and Garth Ilett from Western Australia. John finished 16th and Garth seventh.
Three women contested the event too; the best placed of those Yumiko Shige (JPN) a foiler who finished 18th, then came Jenny Muller in 36th and Lee-Frances Gray 38th.
A final word from Veal, ‘I want to thank Black Rock for running a fantastic event, they did a great job under a bit of strain,’ he said referring to organisers who had hard decisions to make in regard the unseasonal weather.
Provisional final top five results after eight races:
1 Outlaw - Rohan Veal (AUS) 6pts
2 Shoulder Angel - Simon Payne (GBR) 13pts
3 Mistress - Adam May (GBR) 18pts
4 On The Razor’s Edge - Mark Robinson (SIN) 25pts
5 Sector 7-G - Les Thorpe (AUS) 36pts