Australian 470 National Championship - Event Preview

Image: © Victor Kovalenko

The Australian 470 Class continues to flourish on the crest of the wave created in Beijing in 2008 where Olympic Gold was won by both Elise Rechichi & Tessa Parkinson. in the 470 Women’s Class and Nathan Wilmot & Malcolm Page in the 470 Men’s Class.

Their coach, Victor Kovalenko aka ’the medal maker’ has coached six different teams to win Olympic Medals, five of them Gold! Victor has put in enormous energy into building the 470 Class, attracting new talent with his passion and enthusiasm.

The 470 is the Olympic equipment for both the Men’s and Women’s Two-Person Dinghy Event in the London Olympic Games 2012 and has been in the Olympic program since 1976.

The venue for the Australian 470 Championship 2010 is Sorrento Sailing Club in Victoria, being held from 6-12 January 2010, where 17 teams will compete for the title including three international teams from; Singapore, Hong Kong and Italy.

Olympic Gold Medallist, Malcolm Page and his skipper, the former ISAF World Ranked Number 1, Mathew Belcher will be defending their Australian Championship title this week from the likes of fellow Australian Sailing Team members, Samuel Kivell & William Ryan to name but a few of the many strong competitors at this event.

The Australian representative in the 2009 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, Lauren Thredgold has moved up to the 470 Class from the 420 Youth Class, the pathway set by ISAF. Along with her new crew, Bethany Fawcett, the pair will be competing for the Women’s title against the defending Champions, Stacey Omay and Chelsea Hall from Western Australia.

Interestingly there are four teams of brothers competing here with the Crawford, Conway, Morrison and Taylor brothers.

It looks set to be a warm week with temperatures reaching well into the 30’s.

Follow the event reports, results and photos at: www.sscbc.com.au

Source: Laura Baldwin