Wearn Steady After Day One of Laser World Champs

WA sailor Matt Wearn has commenced his laser World Championships campaign in Tokyo as the race for Olympic selection warms up.

Wearn currently holds 21st position following 13th and seventh place finishes across the opening day’s two completed races. But with 159 sailors split across three qualifying fleets, the 23 year-old will first be focused on ensuring that he qualifies for the gold fleet at the pointy end of the Championships.

With morning racing postponed, Wearn faced lengthy delays before hitting the water with lighter wind conditions than he would have hoped for. Despite this, he safely avoided any damaging results and is currently second ranked of the five contesting Australian laser sailors.

Whilst he said it wasn’t a special day, he’s comfortable for the campaign ahead.

“After a short period onshore waiting for wind, we got out on the water to a nice 4-6 knots. As I was in red fleet today it meant for a very long day on the water waiting for the other fleets to start. Not my best day of racing, scoring a 13th and a seventh in the light and shifty conditions,” he said.

“Plenty to work on going forward and I’m looking forward to more racing tomorrow.”

Considering the lighter wind conditions and the huge fleet numbers for qualifying, it’s hard to get a solid read on the prime contenders for this year’s title at this early stage.

Reigning world champion Pavlos Kontides for example, currently sits in 111th rank after a black flag disqualification in his second race. But with his first race scoring an 18th, he’s by no means out of contention.

With each sailor able to drop a race off their scorecard, Kontides will be able to put that mistake behind him, but it will mean he now has no margin for error over the remainder of the competition.

Olympic champion Tom Burton is neck and neck with Wearn, currently sitting in 24th place, whilst Tonci Stipanovic (4th), Philipp Buhl (15th) and Sam Meech (19th) are other highly credentialed sailors all in position to advance to gold fleet.

Wearn’s fellow Western Australian teammate Luke Elliott is currently 59th overall on 42 points. He recorded 29th and 13th placed efforts from his two races on day one and will similarly still be aiming for the top 20 gold fleet.