Aussies sailing to Tokyo 2020 following World Championship results

Australian sailors have earned qualification places for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after a successful World Championships in Denmark.

Crews from Australia will feature in the Laser, Nacra 17, 470M and 49erFX sailing classes when the world comes together in two years time for the XXXII Olympiad.

NSW Institute of Sport athletes were pivotol in securing the qualification spots, with plenty of sailors from Team NSWIS recording strong results.

At the top of the Australian results was Nacra 17 brother & sister duo Nathan and Haylee Outteridge, who placed second despite the last day of competition being abandoned.

The Championships finale had been highly anticipated. Nevertheless, for the Outteridges particularly, the overall outcome was exceptional, given the former 49er sailors teamed up and entered the Nacra class only this year.

“It’s a strange feeling not to do a medal race when you spend two days preparing for it,” said Nathan Outteridge, a gold medallist at London 2012 and silver medallist at Rio.

“I think we can be really proud of what we’ve achieved in the last six months. It’s our third event, we were ninth at Kiel and ninth at the Europeans. It’s been a big jump up.”

Nathan paid tribute to teammates Waterhouse and Darmanin, and class coach Darren Bundock, for fostering an elite performance environment among the group.

“I think one of the biggest reasons we’ve been able to perform so well here is the Australian squad set-up,” he said.

“I experienced that a lot in the 49er class, having a really strong class coach who shares all the information around, whether it’s about equipment or boat handling or how to sail the boat well. And Jas and Lisa have been really generous in sharing that information with us, and Bundy as coach, getting us involved …

“We haven’t done a whole lot of time on the water, but what we have done has been really efficient and effective. That’s why we’ve been able to come to Europe with fast equipment and already make the podium at our third event.”

Haylee Outteridge added: “I think we were a little bit disappointed [the medal race was abandoned]. We didn’t have a whole lot to lose because we didn’t expect to be on the podium, so we were ready to go for it. But silver is still beyond our expectations.

“The amount of sailing we’ve done over the last six months is not very much, so we’re pretty excited for the future. We’re happy to take silver.”