Mat Belcher & Will Ryan blog: On Top of the World
by Mat Belcher & Will Ryan 22 Oct 2015 11:18 PDT
22 October 2015
Gold for Mat Belcher & Will Ryan with coach Victor Kovalenko at the 470 Worlds in Haifa © Australian Sailing Team
Spectators in Haifa, Israel, were treated to a nail biting final medal race at the 2015 Open 470 World Championships. After a closely fought regatta and a tight medal race Mat Belcher and Will Ryan, under the guidance of coach Victor Kovalenko, secured their third consecutive World Championship since teaming up in late 2012. What's more, this win brings Mat a record-setting 6th consecutive world champion title, and Victor his 18th World Title as a coach.
Following 11 races held over the previous 5 days, the final top 10 crews had been decided and teams were met with yet another day of picture perfect warm clear waters, and an 8 knot sea-breeze, signalling that the title would come down to the wire in a tactical and physical battle.
After opening the event with 3 race wins, Team #Aus11 had moved to the top of the rankings. However true to Will's pre-event comments "we expect the event not to be easy, and the level of competition to be extremely tough", day 3 saw the team scoring a 15th and a 22nd. It was an uncharacteristic day by the team's standards, struggling to break free from the middle of the pack, as well as getting caught up in disturbed winds of the women's fleet as the two packs merged together on the final turning gate.
A sign from above greeted the Aussie teams on Day 4 however as they prepared their boats for launching - as the words of Men at Work and 'Land Down Under' broke through over a nearby sound-system! The team fought hard to bring back the points deficit, with a final heat win, giving #Aus11 a one point advantage over the in-form Croatian team going into Saturday's final show-down!
A good start for #Aus11 secured the early break in the who-beat-who medal race battle for the World title, and it was an advantage the team fought hard to protect in the difficult conditions, eventually crossing the line in 4th place to secure the title and a place in history!
Post race Mat commented, "It's a special feeling to be World Champion, to defend our title and to do it with Will and Victor for the third time is really special. I never thought I would be able to achieve six World Titles in a row. It just shows how great our system is and the effort everyone is putting in. But everything for us is about next year (the Olympic Games!)"
Thank you to all of the team's family, friends and supporters for the constant stream of messages this past week. The team's motivation is as high as ever, and they will keep working hard as the days tick down towards Rio 2016!
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