WAIS Sailing Update
The program is clearly back into full swing with all the athletes back from their competitions overseas, and gearing up for the summer of competition here in Australia.
The sailors this year were very young and new to World Cup competition and most attended World Championships for experience and to give themselves the chance to qualify for the Perth 2011 World Championships next year.
The valuable 2011 year will see the 16 year olds develop well and gain enormously from the experience of competing on their home waters against some of the best Olympic sailors in the world in December 2011. The exciting sailors to watch are the RSX boys, Eamon Robertshaw and Patrick Vos who are going from strength to strength.
Perth is enjoying the focus where we will have many international athletes training here for all of November, and some of December. It is animportant time for both coaches and sailors to gain from the numbers of athletes training, and the technology and experience that the teams will bring with them. For the younger sailors, it will betheir onlychance to race against the World Classsailorsdue to the qualification restrictions for the Perth 2011 Worlds.
The big area for me is to also use this momentum beyond the Perth 2011 Worlds to boost the WAIS Sailing Programme into the next quadrennium for the developing athletes.
Looking more closely at the calendar, it is getting busy this week with the annual Westsail being held this weekend from the 25th to the 30th September with 120 sailors and 18 coaches, proving to be a great Talent ID week for me. A big focus is to work with the coaches to help them develop their skills.
The next Emerging Nations Programme camp is on shortly after Westsail, so the RSX, Laser and Laser Radial sailors are particularly excited to sail in another camp with 12 more athletes. The camp involves fitness, theory and of course sailing sessions which stand to prepare them well for the Nationals and Sail Down Under Series. WAIS sailorsin all classes will participate in the camp with the theory sessions in the evening being very popular.
We are really excited with the developments we are making as coaches and being able to have different competitive training groups for the WAIS sailors provides us with new opportunities in the daily training environment here in WA. The camp is from the 11 October to the 2nd of November.
Within this time we have the Indian Ocean Classic regatta on30thand 31st October, at Fremantle Sailing Clubwhich follows into the Perth International Regatta. The AST sailors arriving in early November is really exciting. All the staff involved in sailing at WAIS are very keen to come and spend some time learning more about the sport from the experts!
Following the Perth competitions, I will be travelling to Sail Sydney, Sail Melbourne, the Laser, Youth and 420 Nationals and will work within the constrains of the budget and time as to what else I can fit in over that period.
WAIS head sailing coach Belinda Stowell