Cooley & Hancock secure gold at Youth Sailing World Championships

Australian Sailing’s Will Cooley and Rebecca Hancock have won gold in the Mixed Nacra 15 at the 2019 Hempel Youth Sailing World Championships in Gdynia, Poland with one day to spare.

The lead in the Nacra 15 changed on a daily basis but it was the Australians who ultimately prevailed. The Sydney pair – both NSWIS athletes – finished the penultimate day of the Youth Sailing world titles with an unassailable nine-point lead after posting a second, eighth and fifth place.

“It’s unreal and it doesn’t feel real at all. We’ve both worked so hard and it definitely paid off,” an emotional Bec Hancock said after racing.

“All the effort we’ve put it and to see it come out the other end is just the best feeling,” Will Cooley agreed.

Across the week Cooley and Hancock have not won one race but their consistency is unrivalled and they have not finished outside of the top eight once. With one race remaining, they have clinched gold as they hold enough of a points buffer over the French team to confirm the title.

“Being consistent and working together as best as we can, that’s what this came from. There wasn’t any secret to it,” 2018 Youth Olympian Cooley said.

“We played it low risk and raced smart, not racing to win any races but to win the regatta. We wanted to be consistent and try our best,” Hancock added.

The emotional pair, who are NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holders and sail for Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Woollahra Sailing Club, also thanked their support team.

“We want to say big thanks to Australian Sailing and big thanks to our parents and just to everyone around us supporting us,” Cooley said.

Hancock also added a thank you to their coaches with the pair coached by Matt Jerwood at the Youth World’s.

And in a message to all up and coming youth sailors, Cooley added, “Just keep at it. It might not feel like you are doing the best, wherever you are, but it will always pen out well as long as you put in the effort and the hard work. So keep it going, keep the drive and motivation.”

All Cooley and Hancock have to do on Friday in their final race now is to stay out of trouble and avoid a non-discardable disqualification or penalty to confirm their win.