ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami - Overall
by ISAF 1 Feb 2015 06:31 GMT
26-31 January 2015
The Proving Ground
It was a week of superlatives. Think 678 sailors, 599 boats, 150 races for ten Olympic classes and three Paralympic classes. At the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami, presented by Sunbrella, we talked of "a racecourse built out of shifts." We spoke of competitive performances that exceeded any comparison to walking a tightrope. Dancing on a tightrope would be more to the point.
This truly is the road to the Olympics.
Every aspiring Olympic sailor takes a shot at this ISAF series that travels to the far corners of the world, qualifying gold medal winners and top continent finishers to race at the finale that follows the five-race series. The next competition will take place at Hyères, France April 20-26. The finale will take place late in 2015 at Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. It's a mini-Olympics for sailors only. You won't see faces in Rio, 2016, that you didn't see on the road to Rio, this road. You won't see racing that is any more competitive. No, just sailors hardened in this crucible, playing for the highest stakes.
This is the proving ground. And as one winner put it, on to the next one.
Laser Radial
The Laser Radials were the class where anything could happen at the top. Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) took the gold, but going in, only three points separated Marit Bouwmeester (NED), Rindom and Evi Van Acker (BEL), in that order. And only Paige Railey (USA) was close enough to play the spoiler, if one of those three had a really bad, horrible, awful day.
And it almost happened to Van Acker.
"I put a move on her that forced her to the wrong gate," Railey said. "For a while she was looking dead last."
Which would have been enough to put Railey, who is recovering from a horrific bicycle crash, on the podium for the first time in a long time. "Then," said Railey, "a lefty came in, and that gave her a lane to the finish." So Railey settled, instead, for a win in the Medal Race and a smile on her face as she packed for the airport and a redeye to Rio.
Big smiles also for Rindom as she and her mother packed away a sail that had done its job.
"We were here two weeks ahead of the regatta," Rindom said, "and we've been here the last three years, so we know Biscayne Bay pretty well. And then, the regatta was totally different. Much windier, much shiftier than we would call normal."
As for going into a Medal Race second by one point, she said, "It's very hard when you have two opponents. You can't control both, so you have to sail to win the race, and that's what I did."
A sixth was good enough for a 47-point total. Van Acker was second at 53 points, Bouwmeester third at 54.
Home continent qualifiers for the finale at Abu Dhabi were Paige Railey (USA) and Andrea Aldana (GUA).
Laser
Nick Thompson (GBR) woke up this morning with a one-point lead over Philipp Buhl (GER) with neither of them at risk of falling below second. It was all to play for, and for openers, it was playing into Thompson's hands. And then, at the first leeward mark, what he had on his hands was a broken vang. Speaking a plain truth, he said, "You can't sail a Laser in 15 knots of wind with a broken vang." Thompson finished 7th and still had 12 points in the bank to hold onto silver.
"The most disappointing thing," he said, is that "I went into the race with a plan for how I was going to control Philipp, and I was executing, and it was working."
And then.
Thompson comes away with silver, not gold, to show for a hard-sailed week on Biscayne Bay. But, he said, "O a positive note, I'm delighted with how I sailed this week, and things are certainly moving in the right direction for Rio. A lot of guys had finishes that were up and down. I was pretty consistent."
On a racecourse not characterized by consistency, extracting consistent results was a bigger than average challenge for everyone.
The Medal Race went to Argentina's Julio Alsogaray, and the bronze to Australian Matthew Wearn.
Home continent qualifiers for the finale at Abu Dhabi were Charlie Buckingham (USA) and Julio Alsogaray (ARG).
49er
Austria's Nico Delle-Karth and Nikolaus Resch came out victorious in a top of the table duel between Joel Turner and Iain Jensen (AUS).
A point separated the pair coming into the Medal Race meaning it was all to play for. However the Austrians were comfortable on the race course and kept their in spite of an early close call against their rivals, "We had a decent start and went to the left. Fortunately the Australians dropped to our stern and they had to tack away so that gave us a leading position.
"There was a left shift and from there we managed to covere the Australians. We didn't really feel the pressure because we are really happy with the way we've sailed this week. We wanted to continue the nice flow we had and it worked our perfectly fine."
The Austrians sealed the deal with a third place with Turner and Jensen holding on to silver with a seventh.
Delle-Karth and Resch's victory gives them a spot on the World Cup Final start line in November, ensuring a stress free season, "We are happy about qualifying because it takes a lot of pressure off. We won't always need to be at the top of the fleet so we can test a few things ahead of Rio and Abu Dhabi. It will make things a bit easier for us.
"We went to Abu Dhabi last year and it's a huge event already. I expect it to be even bigger this year. Everybody will be there and we're looking forward to a nice final."
Jonas Warrer and Anders Thomsen (DEN) claimed the Medal Race bullet, promoting them up into bronze medal position.
Home continent qualifiers for the finale at Abu Dhabi were Brad Funk and Trevor Burd (USA) and Marco Grael and Gabriel Borges (BRA)
49erFX
You can't win a regatta on the opening day, but you can certainly damage your chances.
That was seemingly the case in the 49erFX as Alex Maloney and Molly Meech's nearest rivals all used up their drop with a DNC or a DNF in the single race in Monday's big breeze.
"Winning the first race on the opening day, whilst many others failed to finish, definitely helped," said Maloney. "It gave us a bit of a point's buffer but anything could have still happened. It definitely wasn't over until it was over."
With a handsome buffer the odds were heavily stacked in their favour yet across the week, consistency was an unheard of commodity in the 49erFX. It turned out to be the highest scoring ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta ever as Maloney added, "The whole fleet had its moments. It was all about being consistent this week but no one quite found that consistency.
"But it's good to start the year with a win and it's great to secure our spot for the Abu Dhabi Finals. We won it last year. It's an exciting place to sail with really great weather and it's good for the future of sailing."
The pair had wrapped up gold ahead of the Medal Race and a ninth proved irrelevant at the end of the day as they ended up 34 points clear of Giulia Conti and Francesca Clapcich (ITA).
The real battle of the day was for the silver and bronze medals. It was fight between the Italians and Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA) who were separated by a single point. Conti and Clapcich remained in front of the Brazilians throughout the race and took out the bullet and with it, silver.
Defending champions Grael and Kunze settled for bronze.
Home continent qualifiers for the finale at Abu Dhabi were Erin Rafuse and Danielle Boyd (CAN) and Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA).
Women's 470
The 2012 Olympic gold medalists from New Zealand, Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, wrapped up first place here on Friday. That made the Medal Day "enjoyable," Powrie said. "The pressure was off, so we just went racing and enjoyed the day."
For the 2012 Olympic silver medalists from the UK, Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, there was more to do. "The gold was gone," Clark said, "and we had a nice gap over third [19 points] but the conditions were such that this was never going to be a simple race, and it was going to be hard to defend. At one point the Japanese team was way ahead, and that was a problem."
Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka won the Medal Race and finished third, for a bronze, by five points. It's not their first time on the podium.
As obvious medal prospects for Rio in 2016, the duo look forward to "some local racing around Auckland," Powrie said, "enjoying the rest of the summer, and then getting ready for Hyères."
As in, the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères.
And always, always, Rio.
Home continent qualifiers for the finale at Abu Dhabi were Anne Haeger & Briana Provancha (USA) and Fernanda Oliveira & Ana Luiza Barbachan (BRA).
Men's 470
Luke Patience and Elliot Willis of Great Britain went into the Medal Race leading their Australian opponents and wrapped it up the same way.
Even among the regulars on this scene, Patience was unusual for finding the extremely shifty sailing conditions also, "Not unusual. We had lots of northwesterlies, and what was unusual was having that for a week. We go all over the world, and wherever you are, you have to adapt."
Patience and Willis arrived in Miami two weeks ahead of the regatta, "to focus, to treat this the same way we would treat a world championship." It worked.
To overtake the British team, a good race by Aussies Mat Belcher and Will Ryan was never going to be enough. For them to move into first, it was going to take that and a bad race on the part of Patience and Willis. Not a likely bet.
Belcher and Ryan in their turn had a cushion over third that made the strategic outlook, Belcher said, "Simple. Try to be in front; try to get as many points back as we could. When you get to this level of competition, it's about minimizing the risks. But it was a tricky day. There was more wind than we expected, 12 to 18 knots, and the water was chopped up by a lot of commercial boats.
"The fact is, this has been a difficult week for everybody."
Onan Barreiros and Juan Curbelo Cabrera of Spain entered the Medal Race third with only the New Zealanders, Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Wilcox, close at two points behind. A disappointing day for Snow-Hansen and Wilcox handed the Kiwi pair 20 points for a 10th-place finish, dropping them to fifth.
The Medal Race went to Sofian Bouvet and Jeremie Mion, the defending champions from France.
Home continent qualifiers for the finale at Abu Dhabi were Stuart Mcnay & David Hughes (USA) and Geison Mendes Dzioubanov & Gustavo Thiesen (BRA).
Nacra 17
Although gold was confirmed, Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri (ITA) stylishly concluded ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami, Presented by Sunbrella, with a bullet in the Medal Race.
The Italians put together several key top ten results throughout the testing 15 race series and that ultimately proved enough for a successful title defence.
Bissaro and Sicouri enjoy Miami, reasons behind it? "Well first of all, because we win," smiled Sicouri. "It's really nice, the sea is warm so it is very good sailing and it is very challenging because you never have the same conditions.
"You really have to use your mind to be at the top. The race area was so challenging and until the fourth day the top of the fleet was really close on points. It was just that yesterday, we managed to do what we did to win early."
Bissaro and Sicouri sailed cleanly in the Medal Race, taking a comfortable 16 second race victory. With ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami gold around their necks they have qualified for the World Cup Final and Sicouri was pleased to confirm their spot just two regattas into the 2015 series, "The World Cup Final is very important. Abu Dhabi is the goal for everyone. We are happy that we've started our season this way and hope to continue."
Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves (GBR) confirmed their silver medal with a fifth in the Medal Race. A second in the Medal Race promoted Billy Besson and Marie Riou (FRA) into bronze.
Home continent qualifiers for the finale at Abu Dhabi were Enrique Figueroa and Franchesca Valdes (PUR) and Samuel Albrecht and Georgia da Silva (BRA).
Men's RS:X
London 2012 Olympic gold medallist Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED) booked himself a spot at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi by taking a narrow victory in Miami.
The Dutchman held a ten point lead over Thomas Goyard (FRA) going into the Medal Race but a late surge from the Frenchman saw van Rijsselberge edge it by two points.
"I had a poor performance in the Medal Race," said van Rijsselberge. "I'm not super happy with how it went but I did just enough to win. I was lucky because I had enough places already for me to keep in the lead."
A sixth for van Rijsselberge and a second from Goyard was enough for victory and a spot on the World Cup Final start line, "We're going to the final," smiled van Rijsselberge, "We've tried to make qualifying as easy as possible so now the big thing ahead is the World Championship and Olympic test event before the final.
Looking at the points score, a winning score of 77 can be seen in two ways. Work to be done ahead of Rio or as the Dutchman put it, "The top guys are so good and anybody in the top ten can win a race. It was amazing as I don't think I have ever seen such a high scoring event. The fact that it's a high score event shows that everybody is so close together.
"There were a lot of ups and downs. Everybody seemed to get like a first and then a tenth or a 15th."
Byron Kokkalanis (GRE) won the Medal Race to put himself with a chance of pushing up the leaderboard but Goyard's second solidified his silver.
Home continent qualifiers for the finale at Abu Dhabi were Zac Plavsic (CAN) and Ricardo Santos (BRA).
Women's RS:X
Bryony Shaw (GBR) had gold in the bag in advance of the Medal Race and concluded her regatta with a fifth.
The race was on for the remaining medals and it was heartbreak for Flavia Tartaglini (ITA) who was on the course side and dropped out of the medals.
Lilian de Geus (NED) claimed a silver whilst Olga Maslivets (RUS) was a major benefactor of Tartaglini's OCS and a seventh pushed her up into bronze medal position.
Home continent qualifiers for the finale at Abu Dhabi were Marion Lepert (USA) and Patricia Freitas (BRA).
Finn
In a class that has so often produced a dominant player, Giles Scott of Great Britain is that dominant player of the moment. His 18-month winning streak continues without a crack. Scott wrapped up the gold position on Friday and went into the Medal Race with his position assured.
Nonetheless, the Medal Race was extraordinary. Following one postponement, the race went off in 15 knots and went to completion in 25 minutes. All ten boats finished within a 40-second window, with Scott taking second to Australia's rising star Jake Lilley, by six seconds.
Lilley won the start, boldly crossed the fleet and led all the way – by only one second, at the final weather mark. Yes, it was a heart-pounding contest.
Scott, winner of 5 of 11 races, won gold by a margin of 25 points and carried on with his usual, it's all about Rio, diffidence toward the result. He said, "I just had a good week, and we've been lucky to get some good racing in, especially after a bit of disappointing weather last year. Now, on to the next one."
Kljakovic Gaspic of Croatia captured silver, digging deep to do it. At 23 points behind he was never a threat to Scott, and a sputtering start to the week included a DSQ in race four. Over the second half of the week however, he matched Scott's points over the final six races. He served notice.
Meanwhile, the Medal Race win lifted Lilley into bronze. He served notice too.
Home continent qualifiers for the finale at Abu Dhabi were Caleb Paine (USA) and Jorge João Zarif (BRA).
Focus will now turn to the ISAF World Sailing Rankings release on 2 February 2015 where the top 30 competitors will receive an invitation to ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères.
For the ones out of the top 30, their chance will come. The next ten invitations will come from the Princess Sofia Trophy regatta in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Hyères will host the world's top 40 Olympic class athletes from 20-26 April with Weymouth and Portland, Great Britain the next destination from 8-14 June.
Double Gold for New Zealand (from Jodie Bakewell-White, Yachting New Zealand)
New Zealand has won double gold at 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami after Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, and Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech secured victories in the 470 and 49erFX events today.
A further three of the NZL Sailing Team also come away from Miami with a top five finish in what has been a successful regatta for the kiwi contingent.
Andy Maloney was 4th in the Laser and 5ths went to Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders in the Nacra, and to Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox in the Men's 470. Sara Winther finished 9th in the Laser Radial.
49erFX Gold
Sailing a total of 15 races across the opening five days of the regatta Maloney (22 years old) and Meech (21 years old) proved the most consistent of the 40 strong fleet coping best with the variable and tricky conditions that Miami produced this week and opening up a massive 50 point gap earning them the gold medal before the start of today's medal race.
Assured of the gold medal already the kiwi pair came home in 9th in today's medal race and conclude the regatta 53 points ahead of second place.
Maloney says, "Definitely, the whole fleet had its moments. It was all about being consistent this week and no one quite found that consistency. It's good to start the year with win and it's great to secure our spot for the Abu Dhabi finals."
"Winning the first race on the opening day whilst many of the others failed to finish definitely helped. It gave us a bit of a points buffer but anything could have still happened. It definitely wasn't over, until it was over."
Taking victory at this ISAF Sailing World Cup Regatta is significant for Maloney and Meech who have made regular podium appearances through 2013 and 2014, highlighted with the 49erFX World Championship crown in 2013. It secures them a spot in the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi in October which, after format changes from ISAF, is limited to only 20 boats in each class.
Not only that it demonstrates to their rivals, including the formidable Brazilian pairing of Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze, that they're on top form coming out of a short break from international competition over the New Zealand summer.
The 49erFX skiff is a debut class at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 and Alexandra Maloney (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) and Molly Meech (Tauranga Yacht & Powerboat Club) got into the boat together as soon as the new equipment was revealed in early 2013.
Women's 470 Gold
The story of Jo Aleh (28 years) and Polly Powrie's (27 years) victory here at ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami is similar to their NZL Sailing team-mates. They too sailed so well through days one to five that they were well ahead of the rest of pack going into today's double-points finale, with a 19 point gap.
However if Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR) could force the kiwis into making an error today a disqualification would leave the Brits in with a chance to overthrow what looked like certain victory for Aleh and Powrie. But the kiwis showed their class to take 2nd place in today's medal race to secure the gold medal, while the British finished 6th and have to settle for silver.
The Women's 470 fleet in Miami of 30 boats, includes the world's top sailors in the class and Aleh and Powrie will be delighted to open the year with victory over both Mills and Clark (GBR), who were Olympic silver medallists in London 2012, as well as reigning world champions Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar of Austria.
Laser, Laser Radial, Men's 470 and Nacra
Andy Maloney has finished well in the 100 plus Laser fleet improving his position during gold fleet racing to end the regatta in 4th overall. The Murrays Bay Sailing Club representative, who recently defended his New Zealand National Championship title, was 3rd in today's medal race edging him up one position on the final day. Sam Meech ends the regatta in 13th, and Mike Bullot in 23rd.
Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders will be disappointed to let the bronze medal slip from their grasp in today's Nacra mixed multihull medal race. Lying 3rd going into today's top ten finale the kiwi pair placed 6th and end the regatta in 5th overall. The top five result in this Olympic class featuring a mass of sailing talent, is still an impressive result for Jones and Saunders who opened the series with a string of top three results showing they can foot it with best.
Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox come away from ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami with a 5th place finish after they finished today's medal race in 10th place.
Sara Winther has also earned a top ten finish for New Zealand with 9th overall in the Women's Laser Radial class. The Takapuna Boating Club single-handed sailor, who represented New Zealand in the class at the London 2012 Olympic Games, finished today's medal race in 4th.
Winther reports; "Solid medal race, but still 9th overall. Good week of learning and lots to improve on. Bring on 2015!"
ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami attracted 856 sailors from 63 nations to compete across the ten Olympic and three Paralympic events. It is the second regatta in the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Series which includes events in Melbourne (AUS), Miami (USA), Hyeres (FRA), Weymouth (GBR), Qingdao (CHN) and Abu Dhabi (UAE).
Silver medals for Belcher/Ryan and Turner/Jensen (from Cora Zillich, Yachting Australia)
Rising stars Wearn and Lilley make waves winning bronze
The wind was back for the final day of the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup in Miami (26-31 January 2016) with Australian Sailing crews taking home two silver medals in the Men's 470 and Men's 49er skiff as well as two bronze medals in the Laser and Finn class this morning (Saturday, 31 January local time). This brings the overall Australian medal tally in Miami to two silver, two bronze in the Olympic as well as one gold medal in the Paralympic classes.
Men's 470 World Champions Mat Belcher (QLD) and Will Ryan (QLD) finished their first international regatta of the 2015 season with a silver. Men's 49er skiff sailors Joel Turner (QLD) and Iain Jensen (NSW) added another silver after a great week for the pair who has only been sailing together for a few days.
With Australian Sailing Squad's 19-year old Joel Turner winning silver and 19-year old Matt Wearn (WA) plus 21-year old Jake Lilley (QLD) adding two bronze medals in the Laser and Finn class respectively, it was Australian Sailing Squad's youngsters who were making waves at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Miami.
Already yesterday (Friday, 30 January 2015 Miami local time) London 2012 Paralympic gold medallists Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch took home the win in the SKUD 18 with Paralympian Matt Bugg (TAS) finishing the regatta in fifth. See media release here.
470M
After yesterday's final race day was cancelled due to the lack of wind, Mat Belcher and Will Ryan went into today's medal race with a 15 point gap behind the leading British crew of Luke Patience and Elliot Willis. Looking behind them, the pair had a 13-point lead over third and 15-point over fourth but results could have gone either way in the double points medal race so Belcher and Ryan had to be on their game.
They managed the task well and finished the medal race in third, which secured them the silver medal behind Great Britain.
It was the first leg of the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup series for the pair after they missed the World Cup in Melbourne in December and after a week of strong and challenging winds the pair was still quite happy with their Rio 2016 preparation and the competition in Miami:
"We are all competitive people and we all want to win" crew Will Ryan said. "But it's been good to be in that medal winning position and finish the regatta with a silver."
"It's been great to sail here and a good indicator where everyone is at with seven out of our world champs top ten here so it's been a high priority on everyone's calendar."
"It's been really, really tricky racing, but good at the same time. We're learning a lot and it's been good to be back here. The main priority are the Olympic games and we're making sure to gain as much experience as we are heading towards Rio."
And about the week as a whole Olympic gold medallist Mat Belcher added:
"The racing and competition has been great and is exactly what we were after. We learnt again a lot at this regatta and are happy with our overall performances and where we are at on our road to Rio. "
"The racing here in Miami has been difficult with often extreme shifts and quite unstable conditions. The fleet, including us had few sail and other material damages due to multiple capsises over the first few days but we managed to hang in there."
49er
The new pairing of Olympic gold medallist Iain Jensen (NSW) sailing in Miami with up and coming skipper Joel Turner (QLD) delivered a strong performance which attracted a lot of attention over the week.
In Miami, Australian Sailing Squad's Joel Turner filled in for Olympic gold medallist Nathan Outteridge and successfully filled some big shoes. Turner and Jensen moved up into second place on the third day of the regatta and managed to hold that position until the end finishing it all off with a silver medal today.
19-year Joel Turner, top ranked under 21 athlete at last year's Junior World Championships, who usually sails with fellow Queenslander Lewis Brake, was thrilled about the opportunity to sail with the experienced Jensen.
"Its been awesome sailing with Goobs. I got the call up last minute because Nathan wasn't available to race, so I had a late flight over here and we only got two days of training before the regatta, so that had to do, but it's all been going great," Turner said.
"Obviously for me, I just wanted to achieve the best result possible for two reasons; A, for rankings and to make Goobs feel good and not feel like he is sailing with someone inferior, and B, if I sailed to my best, I would be able to clearly define some goals for myself and Lewis as a team for the rest of this year."
"There are not that many differences between Goobs and my usual crew Lewis but there are just some little things I've picked up on which will be really good for myself and my crew because we can work on those things and we can try to up our game as well. At the moment it's all about the learning for me as well as being the best skipper that I can be."
For Turner and Jensen, their short-term partnership, was a one off for Miami with Jensen's usual helm Nathan Outteridge missing out for personal reasons, but nonetheless Jensen was very complimentary of his Miami skipper. ""Joel has been doing a great job and picked some clever shifts out there. We've been doing a lot better than we expected considering we only had a couple days in the boat together before this", Iain Jensen said.
"Joel's been awesome to sail with and I think he'll be a force in the 49er for years to come, he's 19-years-old and got a bright future but in the next couple of years I might just stick with what I know," Jensen replied when teased with the question if he will now stick with Turner.
Seven years after forming, three 49er world titles and an Olympic gold medal later, Miami was the first time Jensen had been without his helm in the Men's Skiff.
"It's the first time I've sailed the 49er without Nathan for a long time. If you sail with someone for years, like I have with Nathan, you get stuck in your routine. It's always the same but if you sail with someone else it forces you to problem solve differently and that's beneficial for when you go back with the other person," Jensen said about the benefits of sailing with a different partner.
Outteridge flew in on Thursday, supporting his crew and training mate Turner from the coach boat.
Laser
Western Australian Matt Wearn made waves in Miami after a strong week which saw him taking the lead on day three and finishing the event with a second place in the medal race and the bronze medal in the high-calibre 126-boat Laser fleet.
"I wanted to finish the regatta strongly", Wearn said after racing. "Being a perfectionist I didn't just want the third place overall, but getting a second in the medal race today was a good way to finish off the week. I was extremely happy to have such a solid performance both in today's race and during the regatta."
After finishing second at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Melbourne and third in the strong fleet of Miami, Matt Wearn requalifies for a spot on the Australian Sailing Team (AST) – a position he lost after a disappointing 28th at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain last September.
"To requalify for AST is such a great feeling" an excited Matt Wearn said. "Especially to bounce back after my worlds experience. It's just nice to get back on track for 2016."
Wearn and current Laser World #1 Tom Burton (NSW) had one of the closest battles at the recent Laser Nationals underlining the current strength of the squad, coached by 2000 Olympic bronze medallist Michael Blackburn and as far as Matt Wearn is concerned the battle will continue.
"Miami has been a great confidence boost – also to get on top of TB (Tom Burton). He's had a full on Australian summer also with the Moths, probably more full on than mine, but you got to be ready to race when you need to race", Wearn said about the competition between Tom Burton and himself. "Things get heated out on the water at times, as you'd expect in racing, but on shore we are good mates and it's great for the team to have good training partners going into 2016."
Tom Burton already finished the regatta ranked 18th yesterday after a virus had weakened him considerably at the start of the event.
"This week has been a lot under of what I expect from myself and the results are showing. It's another kick up the butt like in Qingdao. You just can't race the laser on 50%", Tom Burton said. "It's still been good to come here and see how far I'm off the pace. It gives me motivation to prepare for Palma and come back hard."
Finn
Queenslander Jake Lilley has been called the rising star of the fleet this week in Miami and put in an exceptional performance this week in a tough fleet and a range of conditions and managed to hold onto second place for the first four days.
On the penultimate day Lilley amassed a lot of points in the light and shifty conditions to drop to fourth, 11 points outside a medal before the final race so a medal almost seemed out of reach. It needed something special to turn that around and to come out and win the medal race is quite an achievement for the youngster.
It was an incredibly close medal race with all boats finishing the 25-minute race within 40 seconds.
At 21-years of age, he was the youngest Finn sailor in Miami and with his coach John Bertrand the current Junior European Champion is making steady progress. Lilley only joined the class in 2013 and is one of its fastest rising stars. Only time will tell whether he can continue this momentum, but there is no doubt that performing well at Rio is his aim.
"It's been a good week and Miami put on some really tricky conditions", he said. "The racing has been top notch with most of the Finn fleet here."
"I've shown some improvements over the season and I'm happy to go into Europe next with where I'm at. You can't miss any of these World Cup regattas and they are crucial on the road to Rio. You got to perform at the World Cups to know where you stand leading into the Games."
Fellow Australian Sailing Squad's Finn sailor Oliver Tweddell (VIC) finished the event in 10th.
Australian Sailing's sixth boat in the medal races, women's 49erFX skiff crew of Tess Lloyd (VIC) and Caitlin Elks (WA), finished the regatta in overall sixth
The Sailing World Cup Miami on Biscayne Bay saw world-class fields in ten Olympic and three Paralympic events including 599 boats and featuring 768 sailors from 63 countries. Australian Sailing Team and Squad athletes were represented in eight Olympic and two Paralympic classes taking home two silver, two bronze in the Olympic classes as well as one gold medal in the Paralympic SKUD-18 class.
Australian Sailing's athletes will return to Australia to continue training on home waters before the majority of the team will head across to Europe from the end of March 2015.
Medal Race Day (from Will Ricketson, US Sailing)
The US Sailing Team Sperry competed in medal races in five classes on Saturday, turning in strong performances on the final day of racing at ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami, Presented by Sunbrella. The conclusion of America's premier Olympic and Paralympic classes regatta was highlighted by a nearly flawless medal race victory for the US Sailing Team Sperry's Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) and the awarding of the prestigious Sunbrella Golden Torch Award (given to the top US performer at the event) to Sonar silver medalists Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.) and Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Maine), the first Paralympic team to ever take home the prize.
"Today several US Sailing Team Sperry athletes showed some grit in the Medal Races, a strong cap to a very competitive week in Miami," said Josh Adams, Managing Director of US Olympic Sailing. "With the world's best sailing on our home turf in Biscayne Bay, this event marked the first step in our team's 2015 high-performance plan, which leads to peak performance at the Rio Test Event in August. Next up is a winter training period, advancing the process that moves the US Sailing Team Sperry closer to our performance goals in Rio 2016."
In the Laser Radial, Railey came out firing by decisively winning the pin end of the line. With an outside shot at making the podium, Railey needed to win the race and hope that her closest competitors would find themselves in the back of the pack. The Olympian, World Champion and ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year successfully controlled the left side of the racecourse up the first beat, but Irish competitor Annalise Murphy used a significant right wind shift to open up a lead of more than 15 boat lengths at the windward mark. Using excellent speed and shift anticipation, Railey reeled the leaders back in over the next two legs until finally taking the lead midway through the final downwind leg. While Railey finished 4th overall, just shy of a medal, she said there was plenty to be pleased about this week. "It was exciting to win the race, because I went into it with a slim chance at the medals, and that's what I needed to do," said Railey. "I wasn't able to compete at the [most recent] Worlds in Santander because of an injury, so I've just been on the climb ever since then. To start the year off with a win at the [Lauderdale Olympic Classes Regatta] and to get 4th here means that I'm pretty excited."
Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.) finished 4th in the medal race, which boosted him two positions overall. "I had a tough start, but I picked a nice shift at the beginning to get myself back into the race," said Buckingham, who rounded the first mark in second place, and finished the race in fourth place (and in seventh place overall). "I love medal races, and being a part of them. The top guys are there, and it is definitely a challenge. You really have to be at your best."
Brad Funk (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and Trevor Burd (Marblehead, Mass.), who demonstrated themselves to be true game-time players last year when they secured a silver medal in the men's 49er class during the medal race in Miami, did so once again at this edition of the event. While they were too far back on points this time to get on the podium, Funk and Burd took 2nd in the medal race, and jumped two spots to 7th overall.
In the women's 470, Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha fought through injuries to put together yet another top-10 finish at the highest level of international sailing. "I would say that we accomplished most of our goals this week. With the injury I've been battling, we knew that we would face some setbacks on speed on the racecourse, so we tried to focus on things more in our control, like starting and communication," said Haeger. "We had a tough medal race as well, but we fought back and passed a bunch of boats at the end. Briana is always the cheerleader in tough situations, and she keeps my head on straight. She keeps the attitude positive, which is super important."
In the Finn Class, Caleb Paine finished 8th in the medal race and his overall position did not change. The world #2 ranked athlete in the men's heavyweight dinghy class noted that his downwind speed hampered him slightly this week, and that it would be a primary focus of his training after the event.
An under-the-radar theme of this event for the US Olympic Sailing Program was the impressive showing of many of the top American sailors coming out of the youth development ranks. Standout performers included 18-year old Haddon Hughes (Houston, Texas) who barely missed the medal race in the Laser Radial and finished 11th at her first World Cup regatta. The 2014 ISAF Youth Worlds silver medalist recorded 6 single-digit finishes out of 9 races in the 79-boat fleet, showing maturity and skill well beyond her years.
2013 ISAF Youth Worlds 4th-place finisher Marion Lepert (Belmont, Calif.) led the women's RS:X fleet after a windy and physical first day of the regatta, showing that her formative training on breezy San Francisco Bay had given her impressive speed in heavy conditions. 2014 ISAF Youth Worlds team member Luke Muller (Ft. Pierce, Fla.), sailing in his first Finn regatta after winning US Nationals and the US Sailing Youth Championships in the Laser Standard, said that training with US Sailing Team Sperry athletes and coaches over the past year had been a life-changing experience. "I can clearly see what I need to do to get to the highest level," said Muller, who qualified for the 2015 US Sailing Development Team at ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami. "Sailing on this level, it takes all you have. And I know that if I stick with it I can be successful."