WAIS Athletes Scoop Awards

Yachting Western Australia held its annual Yachting awards on the weekend with WAIS athletes recognised across a range of categories.

WAIS pair Chelsea Hall and Stacey Omay won Female Sailors of the Year for their achievements in 470 sailing in World Cup events and for their win at the Nationals this year.

The 2010 Youth Sailors of the Year went to WAIS scholarship holders Patrick Vos and Matthew Jerwood for their win at the 420 National Championships and for continuing help to other sailors in the class and promoting the sport to their fellow youth sailors. Other WAIS sailors nominated for the category were Matthew Wearn and Mark Spearman.

Over the weekend, racing was held on both days, with Saturday on the ocean from Fremantle Sailing Club, and Sunday from South of Perth Yacht Club on the river. The winds were very light on both days which meant pumping to the extreme for the RSX sailors with WAIS athlete Eamon Robertshaw finishing third to Tim Gourlay and the very consistent and tactically smart Philippines sailor, Bingo Moreno, who claimed the victory.

In the Laser class, WAIS’ Tristan Brown won Saturday’s racing, Sunday honours going to Mark Whittington, with Matthew Wearn second. A visiting Colombian sailor finished third on both days, with a disqualification for being over the line at the start costing him a win on Sunday.

It was a great couple of weeks at the Emerging Nations Program (ENP) camp for all the WAIS sailors, who benefitted enormously from the intense training period that they would not normally be exposed to. It has prepared them well for their European season of competition. It was the fourth camp with the next one being held in October in preparation for the Nationals at the end of the year.

Belinda Stowell