The business end of the 2023 Sailing World Championships has arrived, and several Australians find themselves at the right end of the leaderboard with Medals and 2024 Olympic nation qualification quotas within reach.

Olympic ILCA 7 Champion Matt Wearn managed to avoid the current-induced carnage at the top mark of his first race and continued to narrow the gap on British sailor Micky Beckett who sits atop of the standings by nine points to Wearn with two more Gold fleet races to come tomorrow.

“With the current coming from the wind it makes it really hard to get around the top mark,” explained teammate Finn Alexander, a New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship athlete.

“I was lucky I was able to pick a good lay line and overlay it a little bit. Usually that would be costly but as soon as you get below the lay line there is no chance you are going to make it around so there was a massive pileup.”

Alexander finished his “solid day” with a second in the final race.

“The main goal for today was to have some better starts and I was able to poke my nose out and get away cleanly,” he said. “I was able to have a nice clean line for the first upwind and was able to get around in second. Things spread out so much from there and I was able to hold on.”

NSWIS athlete Grae Morris moved up to fourth in the Men’s iQFOiL after posting four top six finishes from today’s five races. He will be looking to finish the qualifying series in the top three, which would automatically qualify him for the Semi Finals.

“The Quarter Final race is sailors ranked 4-10 from Gold fleet, with the top two from that race qualifying for the Semi Final against the second and third ranked Gold fleet racers,” explained Morris.

“The top two from that Semi Final then go to the Final to race the top ranked Gold fleet sailor, so today was an important day to climb up the rankings. I kept it consistent across my races except for the second last race where I hit the top mark and had a crash.

“Tomorrow we will have five races and I will be trying my best to make top three to qualify for the Semi Final and avoid the Quarter Final.”

One team who would like to add a medal to the Paris 2024 nation quota they have already secured for Australia is the 49erFX team of Olivia Price and Evie Haseldine, both NSWIS scholarship athletes. They enjoyed a rest day today before their double-points Medal Race tomorrow, which they will enter in third place just four points behind van Aaholt and Duetz from The Netherlands.

There will be a live broadcast of the 49erFX and 49er Medal Races on World Sailing’s YouTube Channel and the Olympic Channel at 3pm local time (11pm AEST/9pm AWST).

It was a tougher day on the water for Australia’s ILCA 6 sailors, with Australian Sailing Team ILCA 6 Coach Carolijn Brouwer describing it as a “street fight”.

“Casey (Imeneo) went into today’s racing in third place,” explained Brouwer. “She didn’t have as good of a day as she would have hoped, but she is still in 12th and Mara (Stransky) is 14th. There are two more races in Gold fleet to come tomorrow and hopefully at the end of those we will have two sailors in the Medal race on the 20th.”

With the top 16 nations in the ILCA 6 and 7 from these World Championships securing 2024 Olympic qualification quotas, Australia is well positioned to solidify quota spots in both classes for the Paris Games.

Townsville Yacht Club Formula Kite athlete Breiana Whitehead is also well positioned in eleventh. With a single Olympic qualification nation quota spot available for the top eight nations at this regatta, when multiple entries are removed from the current standings Australia sits ranked seventh at the World Championships.

The top ten athletes from the qualifying series will also qualify for the Medal Series at these World Championships, so Whitehead knows it is all to play for in tomorrow’s final day of Gold fleet racing.

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:

 

ILCA 7 – Gold fleet – 8 races (one drop)

2nd – Matt Wearn (AST/WA) – (11), 11, 6, 5, 1, 3, 2, 7 (35 points)

13th – Luke Elliott (ASS/WA) – 7, 14, (41), 5, 7, 37, 34, 12 (116 points)

24th – Finn Alexander (ASS/NSW) – 14, 14, 48, 40, (53), 12, 15, 2 (145 points)

26th – Ethan McAullay (ASS/WA) – 6, 47, 8, 7, 18, 38, (52), 23 (147 points)

39th – Zac Littlewood (ASS/WA) – 13, 36, (50), 27, 39, 5, 19, 43 (182 points)

 

49erFX – Gold fleet – 15 races (one drop)

3rd – Olivia Price & Evie Haseldine (ASS/NSW) – 1, 4, 2, 3, 2, 5, 3, 10, 9, 3, 12, (23), 4, 10, 20 (88 points)

20th – Laura Harding & Annie Wilmot (ASS/VIC & NSW) – 9, 19, 14, 5, 6, 18, 18, 4, 14, 5, (24), 3, 11, 22, 21 (169 points)

 

49erFX – Silver fleet – 15 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, 10, 23, 5 (197 points)

38th – Natasha Bryant & Madeleine McLeay (ASF/NSW) – (28), 22, 18, 19, 12, 23, 2, 12, 19, 3, 20, 24, 16, 20, 6 (216 points)

 

Women’s Hansa 303 (11 entries)

3rd – Alison Weatherly (VIC) (7), 5, 3, 3, 3, 6, 1, 4, 5, 4 (34 points)

 

Men’s iQFOiL – Gold fleet – 14 races (three drops)

4th – Grae Morris (ASS/NSW) – (23), 1, (51 DNF), 3, 5, 9, 11, 1, 7, 6, 5, 1, (30), 2 (51 points)

36th – Harry Joyner (ASS/WA) – (27), 11, 27, 5, 15, (37), 17, 21, 13, 17, 28, 29, (41), 36 (219 points)

 

Men’s iQFOiL – Silver fleet – 14 races (three drops)

87th – Jack Marquardt (VIS) – 31, 45, 23, (51 DNC), 39, 37, 35, (51 DNC), 51 DNC, 33, 35, 33, 32, (37) (394 points)

 

Men’s Hansa 303 (15 entries)

11th – Peter Coleman (VIC) 12, 14, 11, (16 RET), 11, 11, 10, 9, 9, 9 (96 points)

 

Women’s Formula Kite – Gold fleet – 16 races (three drops)

11th – Breiana Whitehead (AST/QLD) – 10, 6, 4, 10, 7, 10, 10, 3, 5, (11), 4, (20), 3, (19), 11, 12 (95 points)

 

ILCA 6 – Gold fleet – 8 races (one drop)

12th – Casey Imeneo (ASS/VIC) – 16, 5, 8, 35, 3, 1, (36), 24 (92 points)

14th – Mara Stranksy (ASS/QLD) – 28, 2, 2, 22, 15, 25, (40), 14 (108 points)

29th – Zoe Thomson (AST/WA) – 11, 23, 18, 16, 19, 33, (42), 27 (147 points)

32nd – Elyse Ainsworth (ASS/WA) – 12, 7, (46), 27, 28, 26, 20, 34 (154 points)

51st – Sylvie Stannage (NSWIS) – 9, 26, 23, 38, 39, 43, 47, (53) (225 points)

 

ILCA 6 – Silver fleet – 8 races (one drop)

59th – Evie Saunders (ASF/NSW) – (35), 33, 5, 33, 26, 10, 7, 1 (115 points)

 

Nacra 17 – Gold fleet – 15 races (one drop)

19th – Brin Liddell and Rhiannan Brown (ASF/NSW) 17, 13, 10, 7, 7, 10, 14, 12, 8, 16, 2, 20, 19, 21, (26 RET) (176 points)

20th – Ruben Booth and Rita Booth (AUS) 6, 10, 12, 10, 9, 7, 12, 16, 10, 22, 25, 18, (26 UFD), 11, 17 RDG (185 points)

24th – Archie Gargett & Sarah Hoffman (ASF/NSW) 8, 9, 14, 13, 14, 15, 16, 6, 11, 19, 21, 14, 20, (23), 21 (201 points)

25th – Jake Liddell & Lucy Copeland (ASS/NSW) 11, 11, 6, 11, 9, 12, 12, (26 RET), 7, 20, 23, 22, 26 UFD, 26 RET, 16 (212 points)

 

Nacra 17 – Silver fleet – 15 races (one drop)

27th – Lisa Darmanin & Darren Bundock (AST/NSW & NSW) 11, 15, 16, (17), 15, 17, 11, 7, 12, 2, 10, 2, 12, 1, 3 (134 points)

 

49er – Gold fleet – 15 races (one drop)

21st – Tom Burton & Max Paul (ASS/NSW) – 4, 6, 19, 13, 19, (29 DNS), 5, 2, 3, 16, 22, 19, 16, 10, 2 (156 points)

 

49er – Silver fleet – 15 races (one drop)

27th – Thomas Needham & Joel Turner (ASS/QLD) – 13, (16), 9, 10, 11, 10, 7, 11, 10, 10, 4, 10, 3, 12, 5 (125 points)

30th – Jim Colley & Shaun Connor (AST/NSW) – 18, 11, 15, 3, 9, 3, 10, 17, 20, (30 BFD), 8, 11, 1, 8, 2 (136 points)

49th – Thomas Cunich & Miles Davey (ASF/NSW) – 26, 12, 18, 14, 9, 12, 2, 17, 16, 20, 23, 25, 17, 20, (30 RET) (230 points)

 

49er – Bronze fleet – 15 races (one drop)

55th – Jack Ferguson & Jack Hildebrand (ASF/NSW) – (29 BFD), 12, 23, 13, 29 RET, 13, 18, 12, 14, 4, 14, 9, 4, 3, 1 (169 points)

 

Mixed 470 – Silver fleet – 11 races (one drop)

36th – Nia Jerwood & Conor Nicholas (ASS/WA) – 13, 27, 19, 3, (33 UFD), 1, 8, 11, 10, 2, 8 (102 points)

50th – Sophie Jackson & Angus Higgins (ASF/VIC & ASF/SA) – (31), 25, 13, 15, 30, 19, 16, 29, 20, 8, 10 (185 points)

 

Men’s Formula Kite – Silver fleet – 15 races (three drops)

44th – Scott Whitehead (ASS/QLD) – 21, (29 RET), 8, (24), 12, 14, 13, 12, (29 UFD), 9, 13, 15, 12, 13 (166 points)

 

Men’s Formula Kite – Bronze fleet – 15 races (three drops)

56th – Oscar Timm (ASF/QLD) – (23), 14, (19), 18, 17, 19, 17, (24), 18, 15, 13, 2, 3, 5, 3 (210 points)

 

Women’s iQFOiL – Silver fleet – 14 races (three drops)

63rd – Samantha Costin (ASS/QLD) – (36), 22, 24, 28, 31, (35), 27, 29, 23, 12, 24, (28), 20, 18 (258 points)

 

Story courtesy of Sailing Australia

Photograph, Sailing Energy

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