Aussie sailor’s grand plans beyond Paris gold defence

[Pelican Press 0]

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Aussie sailor’s grand plans beyond Paris gold defence

There is a seat at the Sail GP table for Matt Wearn but first he wants to etch his name into *********** Olympic history.

Wearn will defend his Tokyo laser title in Paris after overcoming 12 months of vertigo, headaches and nausea from long COVID to arrive at the start line as two-time defending world champion and the sailor to beat.

A self-confessed numbers man, he smiles that he’d like to “round if off” having already pocketed two ********* and two world championships.

If he can take gold, it would be just the second successful Olympic defence from an *********** sailor after that of Malcolm Page.

Naturally Wearn, 28, is pondering what’s next.

“Not too sure; I’m still quite young, got plenty of time and I’m enjoying the racing,” he told AAP from the Games venue in Marseilles.

“It’ll depend on other opportunities that pop up.”

The obvious inspiration is Tom Slingsby, who added London laser gold to his nine world championships before playing a defining role in an America’s Cup triumph in 2013 and claiming Sydney to Hobart line honours in 2016.

He’s since driven Australia to victory in three of the four Sail GP seasons as chief executive of the team that’s pocketed more than $5 million in prize money so far.

Wearn has been watching closely.

“If any of those opportunities were to arise I’d take them with both hands and run with it,” he said of an America’s Cup or Sail GP move.

“It’s where I see my career progressing to at some point, whether that’s in 12 months or five years … there’s a big incentive.”

In good news for Wearn, Slingsby aims to establish an ***********-specific Sail GP pathway.

“We want to get super successful people like Matt Wearn, and go, ‘Hey, come into our squad, learn about the boats, learn about the racing, learn about the league and in a year or two you’ll be taking my spot’,” Slingsby told AAP.

A move from a single-man dinghy to a five-man, 15-metre foiling catamaran – capable of gliding more than a metre above the water at speeds of 100kmh – seems daunting.

But Australia’s Sail GP coach Ben Durham had the country’s Rio laser champion Matt Burton in the coach’s booth with him in this year’s New York leg, and is sure Wearn could handle the transition too.

“A hundred per cent,” he said.

“The top Olympic sailors that have proven themselves at that level are prime candidates for coming into this environment.

“I think Matt would be great; he’s very athletic and has good decision making. I think it would be great to give him the pathway.”

Australians have won the past three laser gold medals, with Slingsby’s London triumph followed by Burton in 2016, before Wearn beat Burton to the sole *********** berth and delivered the goods in Japan.

“It’s just so close, so tight,” Wearn said of the challenge of defending in the discipline now known as ILCA 7.

“The pressure, the locations can suit some people one year, the next Games not so much.

“You’ve got to be a pure, all-round sailor to go back-to-back. There’s so many that could win it.

“You can’t afford not to have the perfect week of racing and sometimes that just doesn’t happen.”

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