Nacra 17 duo Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin have reaffirmed their commitment to “working their little hearts out” in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games after claiming a stirring gold medal at the Olympic Test Event at Enoshima in Japan.

The Rio Games silver medallists composed a near-perfect medal race to come first and leapfrog the leaders from Italy, earning an encouraging win in the regatta, which is also the opening contest of World Sailing’s 2019 World Cup Series.

Victory tastes sweet for Waterhouse and Darmanin. PHOTO: Sailing Energy/World Sailing

Countrymen Nathan Outteridge and Haylee Outteridge performed superbly all week but just missed out on a podium finish. The pair, who only began sailing in the Nacra class earlier this year - and won a silver medal at the recent World Championships - came third in the medal race to finish fourth overall.

“To win this on the Olympic waters is fantastic,” Waterhouse said.

“That’s one thing, and also we’ve had a lot of [adversity] affect Lisa and I in the past couple of months. Particularly Lisa this week, she did a great job - I love her to death - to be here and to stick it out and to win the regatta is a real testament to how strong she is and how strong a team we are. So we’re so proud.

“It was a real great squad effort this week. Nathan and Haylee just missed out on a medal. But one place could have made all the difference for them. It just shows that we’re a squad team, we’re here in Enoshima and we’re ready to keep going for the next two years and try to win the gold for Australia.”

The Aussies held it together in tough conditions. PHOTO: Sailing Energy/World Sailing

Darmanin described the venue at Enoshima, about 70 kilometres south of Tokyo, as “really tricky”.

“All week we had offshore, shifty, puffy [conditions]. We had a bit of rain. Last week we had massive waves and sunshine. So what we’ve learnt is that it’s going to be a really hard Olympic Games. We’re going to go home and train our little hearts out.”

Meanwhile, 470 crew Mat Belcher and Will Ryan will race for a medal on Sunday. They are sitting in second place, 8 points off the lead in their class. Matt Wearn, currently third, is in striking distance of a silver medal in the Laser class and Jake Lilley is ninth in the Finn before the medal race. 49erFX crew Natasha Bryant and Annie Wilmot came fifth in their medal race yesterday to end with a top-10 finish.

470M:

Mat Belcher/Will Ryan - 3, (15), 5, 1, 11, 5, 5, 10 - 2nd

Chris Charlwood/Josh Dawson - (RET), 5, 13, 13, 13, 28, 18, 29 - 21st

470W:

Nia Jerwood/Monique de Vries - 7, 11, 9, 16, 13, 7, (20), 17 - 14th

Nacra 17:

Jason Waterhouse/Lisa Darmanin - 6, 5, 3, 5, 3, 2, (8), 1, 7 MR 2 - 1st

Nathan Outteridge/Haylee Outteridge - 8, 9, 6, 6, 4, 1, 1, 4, (14) MR 6 - 4th

49erFX:

Natasha Bryant/Annie Wilmot - 16, 4, (17), 11, 13, 6, 13 MR 10 - 9th

49er:

David Gilmour/Lachy Gilmour - 5, (25), 10, 12, 20, 15, 25, 24, 1 - 19th

Finn:

Jake Lilley - (18), 14, 6, 5, 1, 9, 10, 13, 15 - 9th

Laser Radial:

Elyse Ainsworth - 35, 36, 36, 21, 35, (38), 3 - 32nd

Zoe Thomson - 37, 31, 35, 43, 19, (50), 9 - 33^rd

Laser:

Matt Wearn - 3, 12, 25, 4, 19, 5, 6, 19, (27) - 3rd

Tom Burton - 19, 8, 24, (UFD), BFD, 12, 10, 34, 7 - 20th

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