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3 May 2007, 03:11 pm

Aussie Team Nationals Set For This Weekend

Westpac Australian Team Racing Championship 2007

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

The 2007 Westpac Australian Team Racing Championship kicks off on Friday 4 May with teams from across the country arriving for a practice session before racing commences on Saturday 5 May. Ten teams will compete in the Swiss League competition over the three days of racing with the overall champions qualifying for the 2007 ISAF Team Racing World Championship hosted by the Real Club Nautico Gandia in Valencia, Spain, from 23-29 September 2007.

Team Racing is an important component of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron racing schedule with this championship being the forth major team racing event hosted this year. Yachting Australia also supports a National pathway in Teams Racing with the Australian Schools Team Racing Championship held in June each year as the youth level equivalent event.

Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia will be represented at the regatta including the Brisbane Boys College team who recently won the RQYS Term 1 Competition, 2007 Club Marine Secondary Schools Team Racing Championship and the GPS Sailing Championships. However the young sailors will be up against some fierce competition over the course of the regatta and will be exposed to tactical racing at its best. The Brisbane Boys College team and sailors from Tasmania Two will be using this regatta as a learning curve and training for the forthcoming Matrix Australian Schools Team Racing Championships being hosted by the Sandy Bay Sailing Club and Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania in June.

The competition will be hot from race 1 with former Australian Team Racing Champions, whom also competed in the ISAF Team Racing World Championship, vying for yet another place at this year's Worlds. A large amount of the sailors competing were recently up against each other at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival where ten teams from around the world competed in the Team Racing competition.

Race reports and results will be available on both the Yachting Australia and Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron websites along with photos capturing the action these talented sailors showcase.

Suellen Hurling (As Amended By ISAF). Image, Action from the 2007 Club Marine Queensland Team Racing Championship:© Suellen Hurling

World Sailing TV

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.