News Archive

Spring was a season for UWA students to show who ruled the waves, both in Australia and overseas.

In the US, a team captained by UWA Law student Kylie Forth won the 2014 World Blind Match-Racing Championships.

Her team, Lost at See , also included UWA graduate Erin McGlew.  The third member was Ryan Honshooten.  All the crew are blind.

The international regatta was raced using a Sonar fleet with sounding systems that indicate which tack the boat is on, as well as Homerus Autonomous Sailing System marks that each give a unique sound for the competitors to track.

Each team has a sighted coach who follows the yacht in a separate vessel during the actual race and is not allowed to communicate with the team until the race has finished.

Back in Australia, UWA students also brought home gold from the 2014 Australian University Games .  It is the fifth consecutive gold medal for UWA sailors.

We won a total of four gold medals at the Games, held this year in Sydney. Men's basketball, men's beach volleyball and women's squash were all victors, with women's futsal winning gold in the second division.

Futsal is a ball game similar to soccer which is played indoors.

Our athletes also won three silver and three bronze medals, with UWA placing fifth overall and fourth per capita out of 41 participating tertiary institutions from across Australia.

The 7,100 students competed in 32 sports and 23 UWA students were named Green and Gold recipients, recognising outstanding on-field performance at an AUG event.