Australia’s 49erFX team of Olivia Price and Evie Haseldine moved into second place after the first day of Gold fleet racing at the Allianz Sailing World Championships in the Hague.

The Sydney-based pair joined forces at the start of the 2022 season and have been going from strength to strength, culminating in an excellent showing thus far, throughout their qualifying and Gold fleet races at the 2023 World Championships.

“In the lead-in to this regatta we definitely approached it differently,” said Haseldine. “The Test Event left us ready to analyse and see where we can improve, and I think we have done just that coming into this event.”

The New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship athletes got away strong in the first race of today’s Gold fleet but were stung by a couple of penalties in the following two races.

“The first race was a third, but there was a situation at the top mark in the second race,” added Price. “We were on a wave going quite fast at the set and didn’t do enough to keep clear of the current world champions, the Dutch, so we did a penalty turn and had to fight our way back from the back.”

They remain on track to qualify Australia for the Paris Olympic Games, with the top 10 nations at these World Championships securing Olympic nation qualification quota spots.

All classes were scheduled to race today, with organisers front-ending the schedule to get as many races in before the predicted lighter winds and stronger tides hit in the afternoon.

The predictions were right, with no racing for the ILCA 6s and other classes forced ashore before completing their full schedule.

Victorian Alison Weatherly has moved up to third in the Hansa 303 class, helped by her win in the first race of the day.

“I had a good start, made some good decisions and felt comfortable,” said Weatherly of her win.

Compatriot Peter Coleman is eleventh in the Men’s Hansa 303. Coleman, a sailor of over 60 years, had success in Etchells and keel boats before being diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease that has reduced his vision to less than 10% today.

“Being with para sailors and the volunteers has been one of the highlights of my life,” said Coleman today. “I thought it was over when I was told about my eyesight deteriorating, I was going to give sailing away but thanks to David Staley, Lesley Fasala and Sarah Ross I found Para Sailing and it has opened a new world for me.”

They have one final race tomorrow, which will be broadcast live World Sailing’s YouTube Channel and the Olympic Channel.

Townsville Yacht Club Formula Kite athlete Breiana Whitehead got her full slate in and posted five top ten scores to sit in 16th overall.

“I am feeling more comfortable on the foil than I have been in a while,” said Whitehead.

“We had some time in these conditions before the racing started so it was good to be a little bit around the tide already and seeing what the sea state does. I think that is my strength here.”

NSWIS athlete Grae Morris from Woollahra Sailing Club continues his climb up the iQFOiL leaderboard, finishing his day with a bullet (race win).

“Today was a good day, we did one course race and three slalom races,” said Morris.

“It was a pretty light day with lots of pumping, so I was trying to keep it pretty accurate and managed to hold on throughout the day.”

There are two Australians in the top eight of the ILCA 7 class, led by Western Australians Ethan McAullay (6th) and Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Matt Wearn (8th).

Visit the event website for more details on the event, see full results in the Results Centre and follow the racing via the trackers on at the SAP Sailing website each day.

Australian Sailing Team (AST), Australian Sailing Squad (ASS), Australian Sailing Futures (ASF) and other Australian results at the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships:

 

49erFX – Gold fleet – 12 races (one drop)

2nd – Olivia Price & Evie Haseldine (ASS/NSW) – 1, 4, 2, 3, 2, 5, 3, 10, 9, 3, 12, (23) (54 points)

20th – Laura Harding & Annie Wilmot (ASS/VIC & NSW) – 9, 19, 14, 5, 6, 18, 18, 4, 14, 5, (24), 3 (115 points)

 

49erFX – Silver fleet – 12 races (one drop)

34th – Mina Ferguson & Dervla Duggan (ASF/NSW & ASS/VIC) – 12, 3, 20, 10, 14, 6, 24, (30 RET), 20, 17, 27, 6 (159 points)

39th – Natasha Bryant & Madeleine McLeay (ASF/NSW) – (28), 22, 18, 19, 12, 23, 2, 12, 19, 3, 20, 24 (174 points)

 

Women’s Hansa 303 (11 entries)

3rd – Alison Weatherly (VIC) (7), 5, 3, 3, 3, 6, 1, 4, 5 (30 points)

 

ILCA 7 (138 entries)

6th – Ethan McAullay (ASS/WA) – 6, (47), 8, 7 (21 points)

8th – Matt Wearn (AST/WA) – (11), 11, 6, 5 (22 points)

11th – Luke Elliott (ASS/WA) – 7, 14, (41), 5 (26 points)

55th – Finn Alexander (ASS/NSW) – 14, 14, (48), 40 (68 points)

61st – Zac Littlewood (ASS/WA) – 13, 36, (50), 27 (76 points)

 

Men’s iQFOiL (93 entries)

7th – Grae Morris (ASS/NSW) – (23), 1, (51 DNF), 3, 5, 9, 11, 1 (30 points)

41st – Harry Joyner (ASS/WA) – (27), 11, 27, 5, 15, (37), 17, 21 (96 points)

83rd – Jack Marquardt (VIS) – 31, 45, 23, (51 DNC), 39, 37, 33, (51 DNC) (208 points)

 

ILCA 6 (109 entries)

9th – Mara Stranksy (ASS/QLD) – (28), 2, 2, 22 (26 points)

14th – Casey Imeneo (ASS/VIC) – 16, 5, 8, (35) (29 points)

27th – Zoe Thomson (AST/WA) – 11, (23), 18, 16 (45 points)

29th – Elyse Ainsworth (ASS/WA) – 12, 7, (46), 27 (46 points)

46th – Sylvie Stannage (NSWIS) – 9, 26, 23, (38) (58 points)

65th – Evie Saunders (ASF/NSW) – (35), 33, 5, 33 (71 points)

 

Men’s Hansa 303 (15 entries)

11th – Peter Coleman (VIC) 12, 14, 11, (16 RET), 11, 11, 10, 9, 9 (87 points)

Women’s Formula Kite (53 entries)

16th – Breiana Whitehead (AST/QLD) – (10), 6, 4, (10), 7, 10, 10, 3 (40 points)

 

Nacra 17 – Gold fleet – 12 races (one drop)

19th – Brin Liddell and Rhiannan Brown (ASF/NSW) 17, 13, 10, 7, 7, 10, 14, 12, 8, 16, 2, (20) (116 points)

22nd Ruben Booth and Rita Booth (AUS) 6, 10, 12, 10, 9, 7, 12, 16, 10, 22, (25), 18 (132 points)

25th – Archie Gargett & Sarah Hoffman (ASF/NSW) 8, 9, 14, 13, 14, 15, 16, 6, 11, 19, (21), 14 (139 points)

25th – Jake Liddell & Lucy Copeland (ASS/NSW) 11, 11, 6, 11, 9, 12, 12, (26 RET), 7, 20, 23, 22 (144 points)

 

Nacra 17 – Silver fleet – 9 races (one drop)

27th – Lisa Darmanin & Darren Bundock (AST/NSW & NSW) 11, 15, 16, (17), 15, 17, 11, 7, 12, 2, 10, 2 (118 points)

 

49er – Gold fleet – 12 races (one drop)

24th – Tom Burton & Max Paul (ASS/NSW) – 4, 6, 19, 13, 19, (29 DNS), 5, 2, 3, 16, 22, 19 (128 points)

 

49er – Silver fleet – 12 races (one drop)

27th – Thomas Needham & Joel Turner (ASS/QLD) – 13, (16), 9, 10, 11, 10, 7, 11, 10, 10, 4, 10 (105 points)

34th – Jim Colley & Shaun Connor (AST/NSW) – 18, 11, 15, 3, 9, 3, 10, 17, 20, (30 BFD), 8, 11 (125 points)

49th – Thomas Cunich & Miles Davey (ASF/NSW) – (26), 12, 18, 14, 9, 12, 2, 17, 16, 20, 23, 25 (168 points)

58th – Jack Ferguson & Jack Hildebrand (ASF/NSW) – (29 BFD), 12, 23, 13, 29 RET, 13, 18, 12, 14, 4, 14, 9 (161 points)

 

Mixed 470 – Silver fleet – 8 races (one drop)

37th – Nia Jerwood & Conor Nicholas (ASS/WA) – 13, 27, 19, 3, (33 UFD), 1, 8, 11 (82 points)

56th – Sophie Jackson & Angus Higgins (ASF/VIC & ASF/SA) – (31), 25, 13, 15, 30, 19, 16, 29 (147 points)

 

Men’s Formula Kite (84 entries)

52nd – Scott Whitehead (ASS/QLD) – 21, (29 RET), 8, (24), 12, 14, 13 (92 points)

58th – Oscar Timm (ASF/QLD) – (23), 14, 19, 18, 17, 17, (24) (104 points)

 

Women’s iQFOiL (88 entries)

57th – Samantha Costin (ASS/QLD) – (36), 22, 24, 29, 31 (106 points)

 

Story courtesy of Sailing Australia

Photo courtesy of Sailing Energy

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