Australian sailors win full house of medal at Sailing World Cup

Australian sailors have won three medals on the final day of racing at round five of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Medemblik, Holland.

Krystal Weir won gold in the Laser Radial class, with Jessica Crisp claiming the RS:X women’s silver and bronze in the Sonar class going to Colin Harrison, Stephen Churm and Jonathan Harris.

Weir had been at the front of the fleet all regatta and took a 17 point gap over Croatia’s Tina Mihelic into the final 10-boat medal race.

In light conditions Weir finished third in the medal race to win her first ever ISAF Sailing World Cup round by 15 points.

“I’m really happy to have won this one,” said Weir. “The week worked out really well for me, my consistency paid off with some of the girls having up and down results.

“Taking the 17 points into the medal race made it a lot easier, the pressure was already partly off,” she said. “The only thing that could have stopped me winning was if the Croatian won the medal race and I was last, with the results from the week taking the pressure off and putting me in that position.”

Weir was in the top four in every race in Medemblik, including two wins and five second place finishes on her way to the overall win.

Heading into the RS:X women’s medal race it was tight at the top with just 10 points separating first and Australia’s Jessica Crisp in fourth.

Held early in the day the RS:X raced in 15 knots of breeze, with Crisp coming back from sixth position at the top mark to eventually finish third, just behind race winner Flavia Tartaglini of Italy.

The result saw Tartaglini and Crisp take first and second overall with Hong Kong’s Hei Man Chan and Norway’s Jannicke Stalstrom having a tough medal race to slip to third and fourth respectively.

Crisp’s attention now shifts to Weymouth and the final run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games. The windsurfer will compete at next week’s Sail for Gold regatta the final hit out at the venue before she competes in her fourth straight Olympic Games.

Colin Harrison, Stephen Churm and Jonathan Harris claimed Australia’s final medal for the event, with bronze in the Sonar class.

The trio was competing in just their second international regatta together, picking up three race wins on their way to the bronze medal.

Harrison and crew went into the final race second overall but an eighth place finish saw them drop one spot to claim their first medal together.

In the 2.4mR class Matt Bugg ended the regatta in eighth after crossing the line eighth in the final race.

Matthew and Robert Crawford were seventh in the combined 470 fleet with the brothers finishing second in the medal race.

Joanna Sterling was 14th in the RS:X women’s with fellow Queenslander Luke Baillie 24th in the RS:X men.

Alexandra South finished up 17th in the Laser Radial class while Jake Lilley was 25th and Ki-Raphael Sulkowski was 39th in the Laser class.

Full results can be found at http://results.deltalloydregatta.org/.