Dual Gold for Spearman at the Pacific Games

WAIS sailor Mark Spearman has won individual and team gold in the men’s laser at the Pacific Games in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Spearman – a former youth sailing world champion – produced a highly consistent week of racing to finish first in eight of the 10 fleet races, whilst his scores combined with Victorian teammate Thomas Vincent (who claimed individual bronze) was good enough to also take the team event gold in the process.

Having dominated the Port Moresby course, Spearman told the AOC that he enjoyed the competition with Vincent and New Caledonian silver medallist Maxime Mazard.

“It was a really awesome event. There was a lot of really tough racing between me, Tom and Maxime and you just had to be working really hard the whole event. It was really good to win gold,” he said.

“The water’s really nice after coming from Perth in winter. It’s really warm and you don’t get cold at all, even when it’s pouring with rain.”

Spearman also enjoyed the multi-sport environment that competing at the Pacific Games provided, with Australia contesting the Games for the first time.

“I think it’s been heaps of fun especially going to watch their sports and supporting the other Aussies in the rugby sevens and weightlifting. I hope I can do it again, I hope Australia gets invited to compete again,” he said.

In other sailing news:

WAIS athletes David Gilmour (men’s skiff 49er) and Caitlin Elks (women’s skiff 49erFX) competed at the European 49er/FX Open Championships in Portugal.

Gilmour and his crew Rhys Mara finished 18th overall after qualifying for the gold medal fleet in Porto, with Gilmour admitted he held loftier ambitions.

“There were some positives to take away from the event, but we were hoping to do a bit better than how we ended,” he said. “It was a very competitive fleet and the racing in gold fleet was incredibly difficult.”

2015 still holds plenty of challenges for Gilmour, with a training period in Rio next up and this year’s world championship still on the agenda.

“This was last event of our European stint and we’ll head to Rio next to check out the venue and for some training with Nathan (Nathan Outteridge) and Goobs (Iain Jensen). After that we’ll have a bit of a break and train in Australia for our World Championships in Argentina in November.”

Caitlin Elks was able to compete at the competition alongside Haylee Outteridge after her usual skiff partner Tess Lloyd has to travel back to Australia to recover from a broken foot, sustained at the recent World Cup event in Weymouth.

The pair finished 19th overall with some good sailing despite the truncated preparation.