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Four students from The University of Western Australia have defeated another Australian university team to win the World University Match Racing Championships, held in Nice, France.

The UWA crew consists of second-year commerce student Sam Gilmour (skipper), of Cottesloe; third-year commerce student Chris Smith (trimmer), of Nedlands; third-year law-commerce student Steven Thomas (mainsheet/technician), of Wembley Downs; and fifth-year law-economics student Alistair Marchesi (bowman), of Nedlands.

All four sailors have been members of UWA's gold medal team racing crew at the Australian University Games in recent years.

Writing on the team's Facebook page, Sam said it was "very close racing against Jay Griffin (University of Technology Sydney) and his team on AUS 1".

"We had a penalty in the first race but could wash it off just in time to claim the win," he said.  "In the second it was AUS 1 with the penalty and we held just close enough to not give them enough time to finish.  Very hectic racing - almost some tears."

There were 15 nations competing in the world championships, including the 2010 gold medal-winning Great Britain team, which won bronze at this event.

Caption: Gold medal-winning UWA sailors and silver medallists from University Technology Sydney, University of New South Wales and University of Wollongong.

Media references

Alistair Marchesi (+61 4) 30 490 727
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783