Gilmour into Medal Round at Sailing World Champs

Published On: 18 September 2014

David Gilmour and Rhys Mara will head into the medal round in fourth place

WAIS sailor David Gilmour has qualified for the gold fleet in the 49er class at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain after finishing fourth overall in qualifying with his partner Rhys Mara for the medal round.

With the top 25 crews progressing to gold fleet, Gilmour and Mara won their final qualification race to jump ahead of fellow Australian crew – and current Olympic champions – Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen who qualified sixth.

In the men’s Laser, WAIS athlete Matthew Wearn has closed a frustrating campaign in style, winning the final fleet race to finish 28th overall. Having recorded three top ten finishes in the opening races, Wearn found the going harder across the back end of fleet racing, but closed in the strongest possible fashion to show that at 18 years of age, his future remains very bright in the sport.

Wearn’s WAIS teammate Luke Elliot is in 19th place heading into the double points medal race, where Australian Sailing Team member Tom Burton is looking to defend his world title, against British rival Nick Thompson. The current points tally reads that whichever sailor finishes ahead of the other on Thursday, will claim the Laser world championship.

Wearn admitted the regatta had been a disappointing one personally but said he was pleased to round out competition on a high.

“Today was the final day of final series racing for the gold fleet. It was a bit different to the other days, with a more wind”, Wearn said.”There was a lot of waiting around, so we only got one race in. I managed to finish with a bullet (first place), so I’m pretty happy with that.”

“All round, the regatta wasn’t really what I’ve been hoping for. I didn’t sail as well as I usually do, but I’m happy to finish with a win” he said.

With the 49erFX class still in its early stages, WAIS athlete Caitlin Elks and her partner Tess Lloyd currently lead the Australian contingent, in 14th position overall. Another 13 races are scheduled for completion before Sunday’s medal race. With top ten spots automatically qualifying countries boats for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, there is plenty at stake.

Former Youth World Champion Carrie Smith (WAIS) currently sits 25th overall in gold fleet for the women’s 470, where she is competing with Queensland’s Jaime Ryan. The pair finished 22nd in their last start with racing continuing through to Saturday.