Aussies climb
On Day 5 of the World Champs, Price and Haseldine move up to second, Weatherly to third.
16 August 2023
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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.”
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The New South Wales Institute of Sport 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 percent 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 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.”
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 medalist Matt Wearn (8th).
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