Australia’s Nacra 17 program has confirmed its vast potential for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, despite a frustrating end for all crews and spectators at the 2018 World Championships in Denmark.

After two hours of hoping for the wind to pick up at Aarhus, officials were forced to abandon the deciding medal race, leaving brother and sister duo Nathan Outteridge and Haylee Outteridge with a silver medal – just a point behind Italy’s eventual winners – and Rio Games silver medallists Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin in 6th.

It was just the Outteridge's third regatta together. PHOTO: World Sailing

The Championships finale had been highly anticipated. Nevertheless, for the Outteridges particularly, the overall outcome was exceptional, given the former 49er sailors teamed up and entered the Nacra class only this year.

“It’s a strange feeling not to do a medal race when you spend two days preparing for it,” said Nathan Outteridge, a gold medallist at London 2012 and silver medallist at Rio.

“I think we can be really proud of what we’ve achieved in the last six months. It’s our third event, we were ninth at Kiel and ninth at the Europeans. It’s been a big jump up.”

Nathan paid tribute to teammates Waterhouse and Darmanin, and class coach Darren Bundock, for fostering an elite performance environment among the group.

“I think one of the biggest reasons we’ve been able to perform so well here is the Australian squad set-up,” he said.

“I experienced that a lot in the 49er class, having a really strong class coach who shares all the information around, whether it’s about equipment or boat handling or how to sail the boat well. And Jas and Lisa have been really generous in sharing that information with us, and Bundy as coach, getting us involved …

“We haven’t done a whole lot of time on the water, but what we have done has been really efficient and effective. That’s why we’ve been able to come to Europe with fast equipment and already make the podium at our third event.”

Haylee Outteridge added: “I think we were a little bit disappointed [the medal race was abandoned]. We didn’t have a whole lot to lose because we didn’t expect to be on the podium, so we were ready to go for it. But silver is still beyond our expectations.

“The amount of sailing we’ve done over the last six months is not very much, so we’re pretty excited for the future. We’re happy to take silver.”

Waterhouse – who struggled through the latter stages of the regatta with a back injury – congratulated the silver medallists.

“Our teammates Nathan and Haylee, to get second here having not been on the boat very long is a great effort,” he said.

“It just shows how much potential our squad has to grow for the next two years. Congratulations to them and we’re looking forward to going to Tokyo with them in a few weeks’ time for the Sailing World Cup [Series, Round 1].”

Australia finished the World Championships with two silver medals – Matt Wearn came second in the Laser Standard – and, perhaps most importantly, earned Tokyo 2020 qualification places in the Laser, Nacra 17, 470M and 49erFX.

For further details about Olympic qualification quotas, see - https://bit.ly/2O1zpQC

HOST SITE - www.aarhus2018.com

RESULTS

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AUSTRALIAN TEAM AND SQUAD RESULTS

Laser - completed

Matt Wearn – 7, 4, 1, 4, 3, 1 Gold Fleet 3, 9, (14), 13 MR 16 – 2nd

Tom Burton – 1, 5, 6, 1, 2, 27 Gold Fleet 11, 5, (DSQ), 19 MR 8 – 7th

Finn Alexander – 6, 7, 5, 40, 16, 14 Gold Fleet 10, (BFD), 18, 1 –13th

Luke Elliott – 13, 1, 2, 6, 3, 1 Gold Fleet (48), 21, 29, 45 – 15th

Mitch Kennedy – 8, 10, 22, 3, 4, 5 Gold Fleet (42), 25, 27, 11 – 16th

Laser Radial - completed

Zoe Thomson – 28, 15, 4, 24, 5, 30 Gold Fleet 35, (59), 52, 35 – 43rd

Elyse Ainsworth – 21, 27, 28, 23, 22, 38 Gold Fleet 34, 20, (54), 18 – 44th

Mara Stransky – 27, 34, (43), 41, 41, 12 Silver Fleet 11, 5, 12, 18 – 62nd

49er - completed

Will Phillips/Iain Jensen – 3, (19), 6, 1, 6, 12 Gold Fleet 9, 19, 24, 19, 5, 11 – 14th

David Gilmour/Joel Turner – 5, 1, 15, 14, 2, 23 Gold Fleet 13, 7, 10, (29), 22, 3 – 16th

Lachy Gilmour/Ryan Donaldson – 20, 13, 7, (26), 14, 7 Silver Fleet 2, 2, 11, 22, 9, 11 – 35th

Kurt Hansen/Harry Morton – 15, 27, 18, 18, 17, 18 Silver Fleet 6, 25, 18, 16, 7, (BFD) – 73rd

49erFX - completed

Natasha Bryant/Annie Wilmot - 7, 13, 14, 1, 9, 2 Gold Fleet 2, 13, 5, (28), 28, 26 – 11th

Amelia Stabback/Ella Clark - 5, 5, 13, 12, 17, 9 Gold Fleet 19, (28), 21, 19, 12, 11 – 21st

Tess Lloyd/Jaime Ryan – (21), 20, 18, 17, 8, 15 Silver Fleet 13, 5, 1, 6, 1, 7 – 32nd

Nacra 17- completed

Nathan Outteridge/Haylee Outteridge – 5, 5, 13, 5, 8, 3, 7 Gold Fleet 1, 3, 5, (18), 9, 6 – 2nd

Jason Waterhouse/Lisa Darmanin – 5, 4, 3, (BFD), 4, 5, 5 Gold Fleet 2, 27, 14, 1,4, 17 – 6th

Paul Darmanin/Lucy Copeland – 20, 14, 5, 20, 5, 17, 20 Gold Fleet 12, 17 29, 17, (33), 30 – 26th

Conor Nicholas/Hayley Clark – 11, 31, 21, 27, (DNF), 7, 5 Silver Fleet BFD, 24 – 47th

Finn - completed

Jake Lilley – 20, 23, 6, 2, 15, 9 Gold Fleet (28), 3, 2, 28 – 16th

Oliver Tweddell – 11, 17, 24, 21, 24, 15 Gold Fleet (45), 21, 3, 14 – 28th

(Tom Slingsby) – 11, 18, 16, 17, 18, 21 Gold Fleet 13, 27, 26, (40) – 34th

Jock Calvert – (44), 24, 17, 26, 30, 25 Silver Fleet 1, 2, 2 – 48th

Lewis Brake – (34), 14, 23, 17, 30, 30 Silver Fleet 32, 6, 7 – 52nd

470M - completed

Mat Belcher/Will Ryan – 3, 13, 8, 4, 2, 4 Gold Fleet 1, 12, (14), 10 MR 8 – 5th

Chris Charlwood/Josh Dawson – 19, 12, 10, 20, 9, 16 Gold Fleet 12, 5, (26), 6 – 15th

470W - completed

Nia Jerwood/Monique de Vries – (35), 16, 14, 22, 29, 24, 14 – 25th

Dana Tavener/Katherine Shannon – 27, 41, 26, 40, 41, (46), 38 – 43rd

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