The world’s best Olympic class sailors have descended on Western Australia with just four days remaining until the action gets underway at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships.
Sailors from more than 80 nations have made the trip to Perth for the first chance to qualify their country for the London 2012 Olympic Games and amongst the 1200 athletes will be 103 Australians.
Australian sailors will contest all 10 Olympic classes with the local crews including nine Australian Sailing Team members, six Australian Women’s Match Racing Team sailors, 21 up-and-coming athletes from the Australian Sailing Squad and a further 67 Australians with many locals from Western Australia.
The home nation will be the biggest team at Perth 2011 with all of the sailors looking forward to taking on the best in the world on Australian waters. Racing gets underway on Saturday December 3 with the Women’s Match Racing competition the first to hit the water with racing taking place in Fremantle Harbour.
Australia will field two crews with Nicky Souter, Jessica Eastwell and Katie Spithill teamed up in one and Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty the other.
The Women’s Match Racers will have the limelight for the opening two days before the next group of classes begin racing on Monday December 5.
Triple Olympian Jessica Crisp is the leading Australian in the RS:X women’s fleet with the Sydneysider heading into the event off the back of wins at the last two ISAF Sailing World Cup rounds in Germany and Melbourne. Crisp will race alongside three other Australians with the majority of racing for the RS:X class taking place close to shore near Bathers Bay in Fremantle. The Finn class will include Australian Sailing
The final class to race in the opening week is the Laser Radials with the Australian Sailing Team’s Krystal Weir the highest ranked Aussie at number six and she will be joined on the water by Gabrielle King, Ashley Stoddart, Alex South and Caitlin Elks. The first round of medal races take place on Saturday 11 December with the 470 men, RS:X women, Finn and L
The 470 women’s fleet includes Olympic Gold medalists Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell who will be racing in just their third regatta together, plus another three Australian entries. The Star class will feature four Australian crews while seven will race in the RS:X men. The Women’s Match Racing competition will be decided on Friday December 16 before the Star class top 10 race for medals on Saturday December 17. Competition is set to conclude with four medal races close to shore on Sunday December 18 with the 49er, Laser, 470 women and RS:X men classes racing with live coverage again through Network Ten and OneHD.
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