News Archive

In challenging wind conditions on Lago di Ledro, Italy, UWA students Sam Gilmour (skipper), Steve Thomas, Adam Negri and Chris Smith have won the silver medal at the 7 ^th World University Match Racing Championships. The team represented Australia as part of a four-team contingent from Australia (2 open teams and 2 women's teams) and were defending the title after winning in Nice, France in 2012.

Conditions on the lake over the six days of the regatta were shifty, with races often being delayed or postponed due to lack of breeze on the race course, located in northern Italy. The skipper of Aus1, Sam Gilmour, said "as soon as we arrived at the event venue, we could tell it would be a tough regatta in small, difficult-to-sail boats on top of an extremely light wind race course." Sam went on to say that often there was more luck than skill in picking the wind shifts and gusts.

The final was a battle between the USA, skippered by Nevin Snow, and Aus1, with the champions to be decided in a first to 2-points series. The cool, calm and collected USA team started strongly in both matches, winning the pre-start and crossing the start line ahead of Aus1 and showing impressive speed in the conditions, with Sam and crew fighting back strongly in a tacking duel to the windward mark and gaining ground in the downwind spinnaker runs. The gains made by the UWA team were just not enough in the light and sometimes patchy breeze, and USA ended up taking out the finals 2-0. The women's category was won by Great Britain who defeated France in the finals.

UWA in partnership with Australian University Sport (AUS) will host the 8 ^th World University Sailing Championship in 2016.

Other Australian results:

Aus2 - skippered by Jay Griffin (UTS)                                        11 ^th
Aus1 Women's - skippered by Tara McCall (UNSW)                     6 ^th
Aus2 Women's - skippered by Kathleen Stroinovski (UTS)           8 ^th

Media references

Nicole West (Marketing and Communications Officer, UWA Sport and Recreation Association) +61 6488 4309