Wearn to End World Cup Season as World Number One
Abu Dhabi sets the stage for the conclusion of the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup this week, with racing starting today on the waters around the UAE capital’s Lulu Island.
More than 150 competitors from 39 countries have descended on the capital for the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final, including WAIS athlete and newly ranked world number one Matt Wearn, who will compete in the men’s laser.
Wearn will go head to head with world number two and fellow Australian Sailing Team member Tom Burton, as they resume their battle for the one qualification spot available for the men’s laser at next year’s Rio Olympic Games.
Following an impressive year for the youngest member of the Australian Sailing Team, Wearn has identified Abu Dhabi as an opportunity to consolidate has race form across the 2015 campaign and gain further experience competing in lighter winds.
“Going into it the aim will be to medal, to push TB (Tom Burton) again and to solidify what I’ve done this year already,” Wearn said. “It also is the opportunity to get a light wind regatta in and I’ve still got to learn a bit in those conditions, so that’s the main goal of this regatta.”
Matt Wearn, who came second at the Sailing World Cup in Melbourne, third in Miami and second at Weymouth/Portland, has just overtaken Tom Burton and moved into the world number one position on the ISAF World Sailing rankings. With the rankings not having much significance overall they are still an extra motivation for both sailors.
“The world number one is a bit of a weird one,” Wearn remarked. “I thought they (ISAF) would wait until after Abu Dhabi to do the rankings, but at the end of the day it’s a big achievement and I’m pretty happy with how it’s showing how my sailing has been going throughout the year.”
Tom Burton added, “The world rankings don’t really mean very much and I was even saying that when I was world number one.”
It’s all about sailing well at all the regattas and it does put a bit of pressure on you, people do talk about it and I do want to perform well.”
“I know how the rankings work and the Abu Dhabi results won’t really change them. We’ll drop our Abu Dhabi result from last year, which I obviously won, so I can only stay the same points and can’t move up. So I won’t catch Wearny at this event but that’s how they work,” he said.
-YachtingAus