Wearn Third in Abu Dhabi World Cup
WAIS sailor Matt Wearn has won a bronze medal in the men’s laser at the Abu Dhabi Sailing World Cup Final behind defending champion Tom Burton.
Wearn had a slow start to the regatta, but moved up the ranks across the remainder of fleet racing to be just one point off bronze heading into the medal round. With a sixth place in the medal race and a reshuffle at the top, he managed to secure the bronze.
This also wraps up a strong World Cup season for the youngest Australian Sailing Team member, who was second at the Sailing World Cup in Melbourne, third in Miami and second at Weymouth/Portland. The 20-year old Wearn has just moved into the World number one position on the ISAF World Sailing rankings, with Tom Burton World world number two, despite his victory in Abu Dhabi.
Wearn was encouraged to post another strong result after a difficult start to fleet racing.
“The regatta itself was extremely tough. After training in light winds in the lead up it was a rather windy event. I struggled initially and never really felt 100%. To come out with a bronze after such close racing means a lot and is a great step forward for me,” The WAIS Athlete of the Year finalist said.
“The result ranks quite highly for me. It proves that I am one to look out for in every condition and the regatta helped improve aspects of racing that you don’t often get to use in the bigger fleets.”
“Throughout the regatta I had some great battles with TB (Tom Burton) but some bigger results throughout the start of the regatta put me behind the eight ball going on to the final day. The results from both of us show that what we are working on as a team with Blackers (coach Michael Blackburn is working great and everything is looking good for the coming year in the lead up to the Games.”
After kick starting the event with a second place and a race win, Tom Burton took hold of the leader’s jersey and kept it throughout.
In the 20-boat Laser class, Burton went into the final top-ten medal race with a three-point lead over five-times Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt (BRA). A third place there secured him the overall win and gold medal.
“It was another great event here in Abu Dhabi. Very different conditions to last year and quite different to what was expected but good to get all the racing in with minimal waiting around,” Burton said.
“It’s great to get some tough racing in the lead up to next year and having all the top laser guys here was great. To come away with the win after not racing for a while was good and I’m happy with the way I was sailing although know I’m not at 100% yet.”
And with reference to the Rugby World Cup and winning the Sailing World Cup instead he added with a smile: “I watched a bit of the game before falling asleep as I’m still on Australian time so it’s hard to stay awake past eight pm. But we put up a good fight and it was good to get it done for Australia today.”
This concludes a successful 2015 World Cup series for Tom Burton, who won this event last year as well as the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cups in Melbourne and Hyères. Most recently he finished third at 2015 Rio Olympic Sailing Test Event at the end of August.
-YachtingAus