Australian Sailing Team announced for Rio Test Event

With just over a year to go until the Rio 2016 Games, the Australian Sailing Team has announced its team for the Olympic Test Event to be held on Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August.

The Aquece Rio International Regatta (15-22 August 2015) is the second official Test Event for the sport of sailing, and will see ten Australian sailors, including four London 2012 Olympic medallists, compete against their international rivals in six of the ten Olympic classes in what is a key dress rehearsal at the 2016 sailing venue.

The team announcement follows a series of selection regattas and will see the following sailors represent Australia at the event:
− 470M: Mat Belcher (QLD) and Will Ryan (QLD)
− 49er: Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW)
− Laser: Tom Burton (NSW)
− Nacra17: Jason Waterhouse (NSW) and Lisa Darmanin (NSW)
− Finn: Jake Lilley (QLD)
− 49erFX: Olivia Price (NSW) and Jaime Ryan (QLD)

Yachting Australia’s Performance Director Peter Conde says that the Test Event will be an important step in the team’s preparation towards the Olympic Games in August 2016,  “The Rio 2016 Games are just over a year away and the Test Event will be an important milestone on our team’s preparation for 2016. We are in a good position at the moment and currently have a strong mix of Olympic medallists and new comers who will contest the Test Event. While this is an important event, we have another year to go and have a team of strong sailors who will continue pushing to the top and everyone will have to keep working hard to secure that final spot for 2016.”

“We’ll have a couple of extra crews with us training in the lead up to the regatta, which will provide everyone with a valuable opportunity to understand the Olympic waters and to continue to build our understanding of what is a challenging venue.”

The Olympic sailing program comprises ten boat classes and last year the Australian Sailing Team already secured national qualification for all but three of the nine Olympic classes Australia is expecting to qualify.

At the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain last September, Australia secured a spot in the Men’s 470, the Men’s 49er and Women’s 49erFX skiffs, the mixed-gender Nacra 17 multi-hull as well as the one-person Laser and Finn dinghy classes. In 2015 the aim will be to qualify the last three spots of Women’s 470, Laser Radial and RS:X Women.

At the Rio Test Event in August, Australia will be represented in all of the six of these boat classes that are already qualified.

About the Rio Sailing Test Event

The Aquece Rio – International Sailing Regatta 2015, referred to as the Olympic Test Event, is a dress rehearsal for the 2016 Olympic Sailing Regatta.

Aquece Rio – International Sailing Regatta 2015 features Olympic size fleets, uses the same race course areas and the base facilities of the Olympic venue that will be the setting for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games sailing.

The regatta runs from 15 – 22 August, will be based at Marina da Gloria on Rio’s inner harbour, and is based on the same format and schedule for racing that will be used one year on at the Rio Olympic Games.

In Olympic sailing a maximum of one crew can represent each qualified nation in each of the Olympic events.

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