WA Sailors Draw Blanks at Miami World Cup
WA’s elite sailors have drawn a blank at their first international meet for the year, with no boats qualifying for medal rounds despite a series of near misses.
The Hempel World Cup round in Miami was characterised by light, shifty winds and saw WA competitors entered across four boat classes.
2018 WAIS Athlete of the Year Matt Wearn finished one place short of the medal round in 11th position, meaning he missed out on the pointy end of competition for the first time since 2016.
A promising opening day of competition gave way to inconsistency thereafter and he will now look to re-focus for the bigger events on the horizon later in the year as the Olympic selection process for Tokyo 2020 gathers pace.
His Olympic selection sparring partner Tom Burton fared better in the light winds of Miami, recording a third place finish overall, behind World Cup round winner, Hermann Tomasgaard of Norway.
David and Lachy Gilmour were similarly on the fringe in the men’s 49er class, missing the medal round by three places in 13th.
An early black flag disqualification meant they were forced to carry over some high scores later in the regatta, which ultimately hurt their chances of progression. They were however, highest ranked of the competing Australian crews in the class.
In the 49erFX, Caitlin Elks and skipper Amelia Stabback finished 14th in a packed leaderboard, separated by small margins.
A brilliant start from Zoe Thomson in the laser radial faded mid-regatta as she finished 14th and out of the medal round, but the youngster will take plenty of positives away from a campaign where she regularly mixed it at the front of the pack with sailors well in advance of her in terms of age and experience.
Full results can be viewed here.