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20 November 2012, 02:19 pm

Melbourne Gearing Up To Host ISAF Sailing World Cup

Oleksiy Borysov at the 2011 regatta

ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne

Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne will welcome the Olympic sailing world for the first big hit out after the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition as the ISAF Sailing World Cup gets under way.

Hosted at the state-of-the-art Sandringham Yacht Club from 2-8 December the regatta will not only welcome international sailing talent, but celebrate the host nations success after eight of the 13 Australian sailing Olympians returned home with Olympic medals. One of those medallists, Mathew Belcher, will launch his Rio 2016 Olympic campaign with Coach Viktor Kovalenko as his crew whilst former crew, Malcolm Page who retired after London 2012, will attend the event as an ambassador along with 49er gold medallist Iain Jensen. Out of the Olympic classes, the Laser fleet welcomes the most entries with Olympic and ISAF Youth Worlds experience spread across the fleet. The same can be said with the Laser Radial class which has 21 entries. The 49erFX will be seen on the international stage for the first time with five entries. Norwegian twins Ragna and Maia Agerup sailed at the 2012 Four Star Pizza ISAF Youth Worlds in the 29er and will mix it up in a fleet that features 2008 Olympic gold medallist Tessa Parkinson, Nathan Outteridge's sister Haylee and a strong youth pairing of Alex Maloney and Molly Meech. There are also strong fields in the Men's and Women's 470, 49er and the Finn class. In addition to the Olympic classes on show in Melbourne there are healthy fleets in invited classes from Optimists, OK Dinghies, the Viper multihull and Kiteboarding. View the full entry list here. ISAF Sailing World Cup Website

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Lithuania's Juozas Bernotas came out on top in the Men's RS:X whilst Russia's Stefania Elfutina was triumphant in the Women's RS:X. Both sailors claim the first Abu Dhabi ISAF Sailing World Cup Final spots whilst Jock Calvert (AUS) and Joanna Sterling (AUS) picked up the Oceanic spots for the Emirati finale.

A tight group of five young Papua New Guinean (PNG) Laser sailors are stepping up their 2015 Pacific Games competition program using this week's ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne. PNG is one of 33 countries represented at the important Oceanic event, the largest Olympic sailing regatta in the southern hemisphere.