| MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA-(1-1-2004) Current Australian 420 Youth World champion, Nathan Outteridge, with his crew Iain Jensen (AUS), once again outsailed their counterparts to win both the Australian Youth Championship and the Australian Championship that finished at Mornington Yacht Club late Wednesday.
One hundred and twenty two boats contested the six race one drop series, consisting of the Australian Open, Australian Womens Open, Australian, Australian Youth and Australian Womens Youth.
With a number of protests in the final Races 5 and 6, winners were provisional at the time of writing.
Michael Anderson-mit/Graham Biehl (USA) won the Open class, with Nathan Outteridge in second and the well-sailed French girls, Gwennaig Runavot/Sylvain Leboeuf finished third.
Outteridge had to do without the services of his former World champion crew, Ayden Menzies, who no longer fits the criteria to sail as a Youth. However, Jensen more than fit the difficult shoes he had to wear.
In the Australian Womens Open and Australian Womens Youth sections, the standouts and winners of both were Elise Rechichi and her crew Tessa Parkinson (AUS). The girls started as they meant to go on with consistent top three placings. They, along with Runavot/Lebeouf, have a very bright future ahead of them.
In the Australian Open section, second and third places were filled by 470 champions. Matt Belcher skippered for his girlfriend, Rike Ziegelmayer, to take second place from current Ranked 1 in the World 470 Olympic hopefuls, Nathan Wilmot/Malcolm Page.
Belcher/Ziegelmayer did well, their boat arriving late on the scene with no time for practice, however Belcher is a former World champion in the class and seemed to have little difficulty adapting.
Come the 470 final Olympic selection series, Belcher, who has a newish crew in Nick Behrens, will go head to head with Wilmot/Page in Sail Melbourne’s Olympic & Invited Classes to be hosted by Sandringham Yacht Club.
So many sailors did well at this event, many achieving a personal best, but due to the many arms of these championships, it is impossible to give the recognition due to all those concerned.
One of many Sail Melbourne events, it was a frustrating series for competitors, fickle shifty breezes for the most part, the only change came mid series when a big southerly had organizers quickly abandoning racing and getting competitors ashore as quickly as they could.
The top fourteen Australian placegetters from the Open and Womens fleet will go through to the World Championship from January 5 to 11, while the top seven from each other nation will qualify.
This series was also used as the selection for the Australian team to represent at the next Youth Worlds.
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